Republic of Mining

Confusion on the ground [Ontario mineral exploration and Miners United] – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 2012)

May 3, 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. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

Exploration industry mobilizes on new regs, First Nation issues Develop the North, park the south. That was on a popular button making the rounds at the Northwestern Ontario Mines and Minerals Symposium in Thunder Bay last month. The blue sky weather mirrored the optimism at the annual spring fraternity gathering of prospectors and junior
explorers.

But there was also an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with Queen’s Park over new mining regulations coming into force this summer, and the provincial government’s hands-off approach to smoothing tensions between industry and First Nations.

A March story published in the Globe and Mail covering a Toronto meeting of a group of 60 frustrated prospectors and junior exploration executives – dubbed Miners United – only brought to light what has been talked about in industry circles for years. That secret six-figure deals have been made between some companies and First Nations in order to gain access to claims on Crown land that Aboriginals consider traditional territory. For many small junior miners and prospectors, it’s setting an ever-increasing dangerous pattern of cash payouts that will hurt the early grass roots stages of exploration.

Duel between Potash Corp and BHP far from over – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – May 3, 2012)

May 3, 2012

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

The hostile takeover battle ended 18 months ago, but the fight to dominate Canada’s potash resources seems far from over between Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and BHP Billiton Ltd.

After fending off the Australian mining giant’s $39-billion bid with Ottawa’s help, Potash chief executive Bill Doyle said he remains a doubter about BHP’s Plan B — to build a Canadian-based global potash business from the ground up, starting with its proposed Jansen mine.

In an interview, Mr. Doyle suggested BHP’s construction progress at the Jansen mine and its expanding presence in Saskatoon are just part of “horse racing” in a competitive business.

“Until they decide to push ahead, we’ll believe it when we see it,” he said during a stop in Calgary, where he attended a meeting of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives this week.

Barrick defends itself against Occupiers – by Dana Flavelle (Toronto Star – May 3, 2012)

May 3, 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.

Under siege by the Occupy Toronto movement, Canada’s largest gold miner spent a large part of its annual general meeting Wednesday defending its track record as a responsible corporate citizen.

A heavy police presence ensured most Occupy protestors remained in Simcoe Park across the street from the Metro Convention Centre where Barrick Gold Corp. held its annual gathering of shareholders.

But even before a proxy holder representing indigenous groups in Chile raised some difficult questions inside the corporate meeting, Barrick founder and chairman Peter Munk acknowledged the protestors’ presence.

“Last night, I went home and to avoid the demonstrators who try to Occupy Wall Street, who try to Occupy Bay Street — I’m sure they’re all well-meaning and determined people and I was going to ask my driver, don’t avoid them, take me there. I want to talk to them. I don’t have all the facts — but wiser heads than me prevailed and I was taken home through a difficult route.”

[Cliff’s] Smelter decision expected – by Star staff (Sudbury Star – May 3, 2012)

May 3, 2012

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

A decision on where to locate a $1.8-billion Ring of Fire chromite smelter will be made in days, the CEO of Cliffs Natural Resources said this week. Joe Carrabba said Tuesday in Thunder Bay the decision is imminent, CBC Radio reports.

Cliffs, a Cleveland-based mining company, has used a former mine site in Capreol to build a test case for the facility, which would process chromite from northwestern Ontario.

In an email Wednesday, Patricia Persico, the senior manager of media relations for Cliffs, confirmed the company will make the announcement sooner rather than later. However, she said, a date and time has not yet been set.

A number of groups and communities in Northern Ontario have lobbied hard for the smelter, which would create 400 to 500 jobs. Native leaders in northwestern Ontario also say the plant should be built on their land, closer to the mine.

Home of the World’s Greatest Mining Business: Sudbury – by Ross Harkness (Star Weekly – March 14, 1953)

September 5, 2016May 3, 2012

The Star Weekly, which ceased publication in 1973, was the weekend supplement to the Toronto Star.

The real silent service is not the Royal Navy; it is the Canadian nickel industry. While Labrador, Chibougamau, Kitmat and Alberta have been reveling in the white light of publicity, the Sudbury basin of Ontario has gone quietly about he business of building up the most gigantic mining enterprise in Canada and the biggest of its kind in the world.

It is hard to avoid talking in superlatives when the people of Sudbury boast, quite truthfully, that no civilized man in the Western world passes a day of his life without using in some form or other a product of their rocky environs.

They will tell you, and the dominion bureau of statistics confirms it, that Sudbury workers are the highest paid in Canada, earning an average of $66.05 a week, compared with and average of $54.47 in Toronto and $50.75 in Montreal.

They boast, and the department of labour agrees, that they are the most unionized area in Canada, and that their local 598 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers is twice as big and twice as rich as any other in Canada.

Mine revitalization [Superior Copper] – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – May 2012)

May 2, 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.

Superior Copper developing former Sault-area mine

Eyeing up the Batchawana area north of Sault Ste. Marie, Superior Copper Corp. has identified the former Coppercorp Mine as a promising area for exploration, not because of what’s been found there, but because of what hasn’t.

“It was closed to staking for 30 years because they hadn’t covered the old shaft,” said Judy Baker, Superior’s president and CEO. “So there’s been a significant lack of exploration activity out there as a result of that.”

Minimal exploration efforts were carried out by a handful of companies when the property became available for staking in 2002. The copper exploration company, formerly operating as Cenit Corp., sees the lack of activity as a promising opportunity to find significant mineral deposits in the area.

Located 85 km north of Sault Ste. Marie, Coppercorp operated as an underground copper mine from 1965 to 1972, milling 1,021,358 tons of ore and producing 24 million pounds of copper, 2,000 ounces of gold and 228,000 ounces of silver. The mine is characterized by Keweenawan rock and Kincaid breccia just north of the site, Baker noted.

Answers coming [about Cliff’s ferrochrome processor] – by Jamie Smith (tbnewswatch.com – May 2, 2012)

May 2, 2012

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

For a short news report about teh Carrabba speech click here: http://www.tbnewswatch.com/video/24466/CCAB-Cliffs

The head of Cliffs Natural Resources says an announcement on where his company will put a ferrochrome processor is days away.

But Joseph Carrabba couldn’t say where when asked about the decision and announcement Tuesday afternoon at a Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business luncheon in Thunder Bay.

Recently a group of regional mayors and First Nations leaders signed a document calling for the processor to be built in Greenstone rather than Cliff’s base case of Sudbury. Carrabba said he understands it’s an emotional issue and that every region wants to fight hard for economic development.

“Obviously we’re not going to be able to please everyone,” he said. “If we can’t work it out, we can’t work it out.” Carrabba did say that consultations between Cliffs and First Nation communities needs to continue.

Canadian graphite producers prepare for boom – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – May 2, 2012)

May 2, 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.

Move over rare earths – graphite is the new darling of the mining industry. Canadian graphite miners are angling to be high-end suppliers to the global lithium ion battery market, where companies such as LG, Samsung, Mitsubishi and Hitachi are fuelling growing demand for new technologies ranging from smartphones and laptops to electric cars.

After decades of near-dormancy in the graphite industry, an increasing number of companies are racing to produce flake graphite, the purest natural form of the mineral touted for its lightness, extreme resistance to heat and high conductivity.

The mineral is a major component of lithium batteries – lighter and more powerful than traditional batteries – that are finding their way into ever broader markets, from laptops and cordless power tools to hybrid electric vehicles.

“If electric cars start happening, this is going to go through the roof,” said Simon Moores, a graphite market specialist for Industrial Minerals, a group that gathers data on the graphite and other mineral industries.

Residents get look at Victor-Capre Project – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – May 2, 2012)

May 2, 2012

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

He’s speaking cautiously, but the project manager for Vale’s Victor-Capre Project is optimistic about the future of the site. “It looks like a viable project, a sustainable project for our future,” Lee Weitzel said.

Weitzel was at a Vale open house in Skead on Tuesday, where members of the community were invited to learn more about the project. The Victor-Capre Project is a potential site for a future mine located near the Greater Sudbury Airport, about 25 kilometres northeast of Sudbury. Vale is in the midst of a pre-feasibility study to see if it’s viable to tackle an exploration project at the site.

“We wanted to hold this open house to begin a dialogue with residents and inform them about the study and some of the options that we’re looking at,” said Angie Robson, Vale’s manager of corporate affairs, Ontario operations.

The Victor-Capre site is made up of what was formerly two different sites, Victor and Capre. The former Victor site has been explored before, said Weitzel.

Drill results exciting: Pacific North West – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – May 2, 2012)

May 2, 2012

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

Officials with Vancouver-based Pacific North West Capital say they are excited by the latest test results from its River Valley property east of Sudbury.

In a release Tuesday, Pacific North West said it has increased the amount of gold and platinum group metals estimates at the site to 2.5 million ounces — a much larger amount than previous studies had indicated.

“The large increase in the estimated mineral resources confirms that River Valley is one of the largest undeveloped primary PGM projects in North America,” said William Stone, president and chief operating officer of Pacific North West.

“The strategy of including all the mineralized zones and the full value of the metal suite in the mineral resource estimation produced a very positive result. It greatly increases PFN’s confidence in River Valley as the project is advanced toward a preliminary economic assessment study.

[Agnico-Eagle’s Quebec] LaRonde gold mine could produce for another 15 years – by Robert Gibbens (Montreal Gazette – April 27, 2012)

May 16, 2012May 1, 2012

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

MONTREAL – The 24-year-old LaRonde gold mine in northwestern Quebec that fuelled Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.’s expansion into a six-mine international player could go on producing for another 15 years, with average annual output of 300,000 ounces, CEO Sean Boyd says.

LaRonde, deepened over the past two years, has been blessed with silver and zinc in its ore and operated at a net cash cost below $100 U.S. an ounce in 2011 – silver soared to record levels though zinc languished with the global recession. LaRonde is Canada’s deepest mine at three kilometres.

The deeper-level ore has less silver and zinc content, but average gold grades are much higher to compensate. And grade is everything, miners say.

“The transition from LaRonde I to the lower LaRonde II wasn’t easy as you ramp up new tonnages … it’s mighty hot down there,” said Boyd in an interview Friday. “But the ground conditions were good and we were applying the well-tried mining methods and equipment.”

Mining slowdown hampers growth – by John Shmuel (Regina Leader Post – May 1, 2012)

May 1, 2012

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

Bank’s forecast in doubt

Canada’s gross domestic product unexpectedly fell 0.2 per cent in February, with much of the blame put on the mining sector.

“Potash mining was down 19 per cent as a result of the closure of mines in Saskatchewan in response to weak world demand,” the Statistics Canada report said. It was the steepest dive for the industry since 2009.

Statistics Canada blamed the decline on weakness in both the mining and manufacturing sectors, saying weak demand for some commodities and temporary mine closures contributed to the economic pullback. Market expectations were that real GDP would grow by 0.2 per cent. The dip follows growth of 0.1 per cent in January.

Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO Capital Markets, said in a report that mining, outside of oil and gas, was off seven per cent due to shutdowns in potash and nickel, part of which should soon be reversed. Two of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.’s mines in Saskatchewan, Rocanville and Lanigan, were shut down during February.

Mining company [Taseko Mines] asks government not to consider aboriginal spirituality in environmental probe – by Peter O’Neil (Postmedia News – April 30, 2012)

May 1, 2012

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

OTTAWA — A Vancouver company pushing the Harper government to reconsider a controversial gold-copper mining project in the B.C. Interior has privately urged Ottawa to ignore aboriginal requests to consider native “spirituality” as a factor in their determination, according to a letter the company sent to Environment Minister Peter Kent.

A new federal environmental review panel “does not have any right to attribute significance to the spirituality of a place per se,” wrote Taseko Mines Ltd. president Russell Hallbauer in a letter obtained under the Access to Information Act and provided to the Vancouver Sun by B.C. independent provincial representative Bob Simpson.

Taseko, which failed in its 2010 bid to get federal approval after a “scathing” federal review, also asked Ottawa to not permit aboriginal prayer ceremonies at pending hearings on the revised proposal.

And children’s plays should also be banned, Hallbauer told Kent in his November letter.

Ontario’s economy is struggling and politicians dance – by James Murray (Netnewsledger.com – April 30, 2012)

May 1, 2012

http://netnewsledger.com/

THUNDER BAY – EDITORIAL – Ontario’s economy is struggling, and the real impacts of those struggles are not yet being felt. Our Ontario has seen years of government living beyond its means, along with years of outright denial that this is a problem. It is, and it is one that is going to take a generation to get over at the least. Ontario is likely to lag behind more prosperous provinces, and likely will continue to do so for some time.

Ontario’s deficit is the real elephant in the room. Should interest rates climb from their current levels, our government will have to spend massive amounts of money just to pay for what we already, as a province, have spent. Standard and Poor’s has fired a salvo across our province’s economic bow saying how potentially vulnerable Ontario really is.

Solving the problems is going to take some real effort and some really hard work. It won’t be easy. Right now, sadly, at the provincial level, there really isn’t anyone stepping up with real plans to make a real difference.

Premier Dalton McGuinty has a ham-fisted death grip on maintaining the status quo. Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak is opposing rather than leading.