Republic of Mining

Vancouver forgets its lifeblood is resources – Edmonton Journal Editorial (May 5, 2012)

May 7, 2012

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

It’s what some on the West Coast might regard as an inconvenient truth. Although it is known for its spectacular natural beauty and as a hotbed of environmental activism, Vancouver is actually built on old-fashioned resource wealth.

Many of the key commodities Canada exports to the world – from lumber, pulp, coal and wheat to potash and yes, even Alberta’s crude oil – have been shipped for decades through the city’s sprawling port.

Already Canada’s busiest cargo hub and a vital link for Asian imports, Port Metro Vancouver plans to boost capacity by 50 per cent over the next 15 years. Yet, the port is only one aspect of the crucial role Vancouver plays in Canada’s resource-driven economy, which needs expanded access to Asia’s fast-growing markets to ensure the country’s future prosperity.

Dozens of major mining, forest products and resource services firms are based in Vancouver, with operations all over the world. These firms in turn drive much of the activity in the city’s legal, accounting and investment firms.

Mining show uncovers the hidden riches of the industry in Canada – by Dave Cooper (Edmonton Journal – May 5, 2012)

May 7, 2012

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

EDMONTON – Walking into the Shaw Conference Centre, professional gold panner Yukon Dan Moore stands over eager young miners swishing water through gravel, looking for gleaming flecks.

“Folks always ask is there any gold left in the world. Wow, there will always be gold, it’s everywhere,” said Moore, who with a long grey beard, leather hat and vest looks like he just left his riverside haunts. “I pan in the Thompson and other rivers in B.C., and I make a good living at it.”

If Moore is at one end of the mining process, University of Alberta mining engineering students such as Josh Andrews are at the other. He and others watched children driving Caterpillar simulators or using a toothpick to break apart a chocolate chip cookie — the toothpicks, which cost pretend money, represent equipment, while the chocolate is the ore.

Break too many toothpicks and the cost of extraction will be more than the ore is worth. “It’s a basic mining concept. We are trying to get kids to understand the challenges of mining,” said Andrews, who graduates and leaves soon for his first full-time job with Teck, Canada’s largest mining company.

Diamond mines in Canada at risk – by Matthew McClearn (Canadian Business Magazine – May 04, 2012)

November 4, 2015May 7, 2012

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

Diamonds are symbols of permanence. Some—thought to have arrived on meteorites—may be 10 billion years old, more ancient than the planet itself. The fortunes of diamond mines, by contrast, can be protean. That’s worrisome for the Northwest Territories, home to Canada’s two largest diamond mines, Ekati and Diavik. Since November, their majority owners (multinational mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, respectively) both have commenced reviews of their diamond operations, effectively putting both mines up for sale. Some analysts speculate these reviews could result in individual mine sales or initial public offerings of entire diamond divisions.

Canada’s diamond industry has also reached a crossroads, for related reasons. It’s been more than two decades since geologists Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson discovered diamond-rich kimberlites in the N.W.T., sparking the biggest staking rush in Canadian history. Their Ekati mine, developed in partnership with BHP, opened in 1998. Rio’s Diavik followed in 2003. It’s tough to understate these mines’ impact on an industry characterized for most of the 20th century by monopolistic practices. By the early 2000s, Canada had become the world’s third-largest diamond-producing nation, behind Botswana and Russia. Our mines helped break the famed De Beers cartel.

It couldn’t last forever, though. In 2007, two men pondered the industry’s future. Tom Hoefer, then manager of public affairs at Diavik, warned at a conference that the industry needed to ramp up exploration. Canada’s mines were all old discoveries, and it was taking ever longer to bring new ones into service.

Success is measured by the quality of succession [Sudbury’s Norcat]- by Michael Atkins (Northern Ontario Business – May 2012)

May 7, 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.

Occasionally, we do the right thing in Northern Ontario. We focus on the right stuff, stay with it, attract broad-based support, stop competing with one another long enough to get something done and we move the hash marks forward.

Usually this success comes from one person or a group of like-minded people who form a working trust and are determined, fearless, single-minded, often rude, sometimes arrogant and always in a hurry.

You see this in business, politics, sports and economic development. What you don’t see often is succession from one hard-driving generation to another. One of the reasons is that, just like entrepreneurs who start their own businesses, larger than life groups or individuals in the civil society suck up the oxygen in the room and there isn’t much room for successors to grow and spread their wings. Most great politicians who change a city, a province or the country don’t think they will ever lose an election. Most entrepreneurs don’t think they will ever die. Great leaders are often too busy, too focused, and too passionate about today to give much thought to tomorrow when they have moved on. It is just unimaginable to them.

Mining industry an ‘economic pillar’ in Ontario – by Heidi Ulrichsen (Sudbury Northern Life – May 5, 2012)

May 7, 2012

This article came from Northern Life, Sudbury’s biweekly newspaper.

The province’s mining industry was praised as one of Ontario’s “economic pillars” by the acting assistant deputy minister for the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines during the annual Sudbury Mining Week luncheon May 4.

“I think the industry will play a significant role as the government works to address the province’s fiscal and economic challenges,” Cindy Blanchard-Smith said.

The mining industry employs about 27,000 people in the province directly, and another 50,000 indirectly, Blanchard-Smith said. In Sudbury, Canada’s “de facto centre of mining excellence,” the value of mineral production was $4.4 billion in 2011.

Mining has taken place here for well over a century, and “many experts feel we’ll still be mining in Sudbury for another century,” she said. Blanchard-Smith also praised the mining supply and services sector, which employs more than 25,000 people in northern Ontario alone.

There are more than 500 of these types of businesses in the north, producing supplies and services worth more than $5.6 billion annually. “Sudbury has an established reputation for innovation and excellence in all areas of mining exploration, mine development and rehabilitation,” Blanchard-Smith said.

New-World Networking Collaboration will Advance Mining Industry:Anglo Gold – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – May 2012)

May 6, 2012

By 8:30 a.m. on the day of his presentation to members of the Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA), Michael MacFarlane had already been up for four hours and worked for three. As the senior vice-president of technology and innovation for AngloGold Ashanti, MacFarlane lives in Sudbury and works in South Africa, and believes the mining industry has arrived at the era of the global virtual employee.

“That’s how the work gets done,” he said. “That’s the future.” To keep up with the rising demand for minerals, companies need to focus on global networking to find the expertise and innovation needed to sustain the industry, MacFarlane said. For the last 100 years, the industry has operated using the same methods, a combination of human labour matched with heavy machinery and automation, he noted. But a higher mining intensity is needed in order to keep up with future needs, and that requires mining companies to change the way they do things.

“We cannot continue to mine the deposits we have at the rate we’re mining them,” MacFarlane said. “You have to take the intensity and triple it if we have any hope of meeting the signal of what the market’s looking for. The current mining methods we have, I just don’t believe they’re going to work in the underground context and deliver the response that the market’s asking for.”

Ontario Government and Cliffs have been holding confidential meetings without First Nations – Aroland Chief – by NNL-News (NetNewsLedger.com – May 4, 2012)

May 6, 2012

www.NetNewsLedger.com

AROLAND FIRST NATION – Aroland First Nation has filed a request for disclosure to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines (MNDM) on information relating to Cliffs Chromite mining project in the area known as the Ring of Fire under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

Aroland is one of the First Nations that will be directly impacted from the Cliffs initiative which includes the construction of an open pit mine, ore processing facility, ferrochrome production facility and an integrated transport system that will include a 340 kilometer North-South all-season road corridor from the mine site to just west of the community of Aroland. A number of major environmental impacts have already been identified and has raised concerns with First Nations closeby.

The First Nation states, in a media release, “The decision to file a freedom of information request was made when it came to light that the Ontario Government and Cliffs have been holding confidential meetings, concealing information and are preparing to make an announcement”.

“We need to find out what has been going on behind closed doors. Our community is going to be impacted by the Cliffs project along with many others, but we were not part of these meetings, nor were local municipalities.

Global miners will fight advance of resource nationalism – Glencore CEO – by Emma Farge (Mineweb.com – May 05, 2012)

May 6, 2012

www.mineweb.com

Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg told a conference in Switzerland that mining companies will fight resource nationalism by pulling out of countries where they feel demands are too onerous.

ST GALLEN, Switzerland (Reuters) – Mining companies will fight growing resource nationalism and could pull out of countries where governments are demanding too large a share of the pie, commodities giant Glencore warned on Friday, a day after Argentina nationalised the country’s biggest oil firm.

“The mining industry is forming tight groups among each other on how we are going to fight it…,” Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg said.

Glasenberg, speaking at a conference in the Swiss town of St Gallen, warned there would be consequences to producer countries seeking an ever larger share of mining profits, a trend which has risen alongside commodity prices as the main mining constituencies raise taxes and royalties.

Regulators forcing miners to watch what they say – by Peter Koven (National Post – May 5, 2012)

May 6, 2012

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

Securities regulators are back on the warpath when it comes to junior miners. In the past several months regulators have been busy sending a harsh message to companies that there will be consequences if they don’t follow precise disclosure rules related to their projects. Miners have lost out on financings and had trading of their stocks halted after getting in the crosshairs of securities commissions, a development that only adds more risk to an already risky business.

“It has certainly been a wake-up call to capital market participants that they need to be mindful of their technical disclosure, or their deals can get hung up,” said Jeremy Fraiberg, co-chair of the mining group at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP.

For investors, the crackdown is a reminder that caution is always warranted when looking at how companies interpret drilling results, economic assessments and other data. While Canada has come a long way from the Bre-X era, disclosure deficiencies still pop up.

Provincial regulators have recently gone after a long list of juniors for alleged lapses. Some of the most talked-about names include Extorre Gold Mines Ltd., Rio Novo Gold Inc., Karnalyte Resources Inc., Orbite Aluminae Inc., and Clifton Star Resources Inc. None of them have categorically denied making mistakes.

News Release: Cliffs Refuses to Provide First Point with Key Data on Decar Project

May 6, 2012

May 5, 2012, 9:35 a.m. EDT

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, May 05, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — First Point Minerals Corp. /quotes/zigman/157178 CA:FPX 0.00% (“First Point” or the “Company”) announces that it has served notice of arbitration on Cliffs Natural Resources Exploration Canada Inc. and Cliffs Natural Resources Exploration Inc. (collectively “Cliffs”) over Cliffs’ refusal to provide First Point with information prepared by their consultants with respect to the Decar Nickel-Iron Alloy Project in British Columbia.

Cliffs has refused to provide First Point with certain key reports prepared by consultants and contractors with respect to the Decar Project. The reporting obligations under the Option Agreement currently in effect require that Cliffs provide First Point, on a timely basis, with: “…copies of all reports…and consultants’ and contractors’ reports.”

First Point regrets having no alternative to taking this step against a major company such as Cliffs, but repeated requests by First Point for delivery of the information have been either refused or ignored, and Cliffs’ refusal thus far to provide these reports is damaging the interests of First Point and its shareholders. Management of First Point cannot speculate on the possible nature of the content of the reports that would cause Cliffs to refuse to share the information with First Point as required in the Option Agreement.

Moon mining: Canada’s possible new role in space – by Canadian Press (CTV.ca – February 26, 2012)

May 6, 2012

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

MONTREAL — Canada could play a key role in a new international space race, with the next sprint to the moon gearing up as an extra-terrestrial gold rush.

Industry insiders will be watching closely this week as the heads of the world’s five biggest space agencies get together in Quebec City, where the partners on the International Space Station will discuss more than just the future of the orbiting lab.

They will also address an idea gaining currency in business and scientific circles: that within human reach lies an unfathomable wealth of resources, some of them common on Earth and others so exotic that they could change the way we live.

Canada could figure prominently in any discussion about lunar exploration, with nearly one-quarter of the world’s top mining companies headquartered here and this country also known for robotics like the famous Canadarm.

Several countries, including China, have expressed a desire to start mining the moon’s resources. The mining industry is now waiting for the Canadian Space Agency to make its intentions known, while the agency awaits direction from the federal government.

Crisis in Mining – by Richard (Rick) Mills (Ahead of the Herd.com – May 2012)

May 5, 2012

http://aheadoftheherd.com/

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information

A combination of mass retirements and increasing natural resource demand from emerging economies has created a crisis in the resource extraction sector – one which is definitely not on investor’s radar screens.

Currently there is a “massive talent gap” that is going to get worse because the global mining industry is experiencing the biggest wave of workforce retirements in 70 years – the oldest baby boomers turned 65 years old in 2011.

The Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MIHRC) has recently said that about 40% of the resource extraction industry’s workforce is at least 50 years old and one third of them are expected to retire by 2022.

The organization also forecasts that the Canadian mining industry will face a shortage of 140,000 workers by 2021 – this number of workers being needed just to maintain current levels of production.

The Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada warned a severe oil patch labor shortage is looming and that the “patch” will need to hire 24,000 new employees by 2014.

[Ring of Fire] Open Letter to Cliffs Natural Resouces CEO from Mayor of Greenstone – by Renald Beaulieu (May 4, 2012)

May 5, 2012

May 4, 2012

OPEN LETTER

Mr. Joseph Carrabba Chairman, President and CEO Cliffs Natural Resources

Dear Mr. Carrabba

I am writing to you today to ask some questions that are unresolved following your presentation to the Aboriginal Business Council’s luncheon event in Thunder Bay, Ontario earlier this week.

As the Mayor of Greenstone, I and several members of my Council attended the event with the expectation that we would earn something about the company’s approach to matters that remain unaddressed. We left disappointed by the sheer lack of information.

Accordingly, since the matters are of such great urgency I am writing today to request your answers to the following questions.

1. You mentioned that Cliffs doesn’t come in and roll over local interests. With that in mind, could you please tell me if you are aware that area First Nations have unanimously endorsed the principle that the ore body should be refined in the same territory from which it is extracted?

Is Canada taking China for granted when it comes to energy? – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – May 4, 2012)

May 5, 2012

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

In the debate about whether Canada should welcome China’s growing investment in our energy, a couple of crucial points have been getting little air time: Canada’s energy isn’t as indispensible to China as some assume, and China is at least as motivated by learning how to operate in a Western market economy as it is by securing energy to fuel its future.

Junsai Zhang, China’s ambassador to Canada, drove those points home Friday — a rare attempt by the country to add its voice and bring back to reality a Canadian discussion it feels has gotten way ahead of itself.

“We haven’t imported one drop of oil,” Mr. Zhang said in an interview in Calgary. “It’s too early to say China imports your oil and gas. We are in a very good collaboration with Australia, with other Western countries. No problems. If we don’t import from here, we import from other countries. It’s OK.”

It’s a sobering and unexpected message. For all the concern about China’s increasing presence in Canada, not having the option of selling to that market would be a major setback. It would also be a missed opportunity to show global leadership.

The economics of energy conservation [The Danish Paradox] – Jeff Rubin (Globe and Mail – May 5, 2012)

May 5, 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.

Three years ago, Jeff Rubin left Bay Street to publish a book that warned that the world was on the brink of a period of deglobalization because of the rising cost of energy. Now, as he argues in his forthcoming book, The End of Growth, sustained high oil prices mean that advanced economies are gearing down into a new era of slow – or no – economic growth.

While most economists believe that zero growth means big trouble, Mr. Rubin says it does not have to be a disaster – because consumers in the developed world can learn to live with less, even in energy-hungry Canada. The former CIBC World Markets chief economist cites research to show that some of the happiest people on Earth live in slow-growth economies. Lofty oil prices will do more than any regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions and slow urban sprawl. The transition to slower growth spells tough, near-term changes in the economy – but in the long run, the environment and its citizens might be better for it.

Just what does this new world look like, and what will it take to adjust? Some surprising answers lie an ocean away, in Denmark.

The first thing I noticed on a flight into Copenhagen a few summers ago was a ring of wind turbines surrounding the city. Not far from the city’s harbor, the sweeping arc of offshore windmills is a hard sight to miss.