Republic of Mining

Rio Tinto, Caterpillar lock out more than 1,000 workers – by Christine Dobby (National Post – January 3, 2012)

January 3, 2012

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

The year began with lockouts for about 1,200 workers at two companies in Ontario and Quebec, as contract negotiations broke down in the waning days of 2011.

Caterpillar Inc. subsidiary Electro-Motive Canada locked out about 420 production workers at its London, Ont. facility on Sunday, the same day as Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. said it initiated a lockout of about 750 employees at its smelter in Alma, Que. Collective agreements in both cases expired on Dec. 31.

In the Electro-Motive case, the Canadian Auto Workers Local 27, the union representing the workers who make locomotives at the plant, had been negotiating a new contract with the company since November, hoping to replace a six- month extension with a new collective agreement.

Bill 14 will change [Quebec] mining sector for worse – by Jean-Francois Minardi, Troy Media (Montreal Gazette – September 20, 2011)

January 3, 2012

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

Giving power to municipalities will make it harder to invest in new jobs

Jean-François Minardi is associate director of the Global Natural Resource Policy Centre with the Fraser Institute.

Until recently, Quebec was seen by mining executives around the world as having the best policy environment for investment, mainly thanks to a predictable regulatory environment, the absence of territorial claims in northern Quebec, high quality geo-scientific data easily accessible to miners, good infrastructure, a skilled workforce, and an attractive mining-tax system.

But with the introduction May 12 of Bill 14, to amend Quebec’s Mining Act, the province is now poised to introduce a high level of uncertainty that may scare investors away and seriously damage the policy attractiveness of Quebec to mining investment.

Bill 14 gives additional power to municipalities to control mining activities on their territory, something municipalities clamoured for during the heated debates over regulating the shale gas industry.

Sherritt CEO [Ian Delaney] reflects on 40 years in the capitalism game – by Jennifer Wells (Toronto Star – January 1, 2012)

January 2, 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.

“You do understand it’s a lottery,” says the fired executive. “You know the whole damn thing’s a lottery.” The fired executive is talking about life, that damn thing, that single ticket you’re given. Punched once, you’re done. Adios.

So the executive, who enjoyed the benefits that come along with a multimillion-dollar salary and a chief executive officer’s title, up and fired himself four weeks ago, an act that has put him in the mood to reflect on the past 40 years playing the capitalism game.

It’s a good year for reflection.

The year the eurozone went to hell in a handbasket. The year of the Occupy movement. The year of economic foreboding. There’s 1 per cent. There’s 99 per cent. There’s one-tenth of 1 per cent. Like this guy. So.

Ian Delaney often reaches for small words and sprinkles them over the boardroom table as if they were full sentences.

Year in Review: [B.C.] Resource sector booms, but concerns linger – by Derrick Penner (Vancouver Sun – December 31, 2011)

January 2, 2012December 31, 2011

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

Call 2011 a tale of two economies, which proved a boon to British Columbia on one hand, but still prompted wary concern on the other. Asia, particularly China, fairly rocketed forward in the post-recession recovery, carrying B.C.’s resource industries with it. Coal miners cashed in on record high prices, lumber producers continued to make record sales to China and resource developers rushed to push projects along, from new mines to pipelines and natural gas liquefaction plants.

B.C.’s real estate markets carried on from 2010’s strong rebound thanks in large part to an influx of investment from Asian investors and immigrants that helped push home prices in select markets up to levels that confounded observers and skewed average prices nationally. Yet provincial unemployment, while trending down, remained uncomfortably high and concerns remained about exposure to the markets that struggled.

The United States remained in the doldrums, Europe struggled through a sovereign debt crisis and the resulting fears of both regions sliding back into recession side-swiped expectations for stronger global growth.

Sudbury Community leaders share hopes for 2012 – Jobs mayor’s priority – by Laura Stradiotto (Sudbury Star – December 31, 2011)

January 2, 2012December 31, 2011

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

… mining analyst Stan Sudol would like to see the consolidation
of the province’s post-secondary mining engineering and geology programs at Laurentian University. Sudol isn’t the most popular man among University of Toronto and other academic types from southern Ontario. But the creation of an international “Harvard of hard-rock mining” in Sudbury … “By relocating mining and geology programs from Queens, in Kingston, and the University of Toronto — neither city has any mines — to Laurentian, the province would save money and further enhance Sudbury’s global expertise in mining research and education.”

Focus on the city’s strengths and think outside the box. These ideas are part of the economic blueprint for Sudbury’s growth in 2012, say community leaders.

It’s no surprise that job creation is at the top of Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk’s wish list for the city in the New Year. Although she’s rooting for Cliffs Natural Resources to build a chromite processing plant here and create 400 to 500 jobs, Matichuk said it’s important to build and support the businesses already here.

“We also need to take advantage of some of our unique opportunities,” she said. “If you look at us as world leaders, you look at our environmental rehabilitation.”

High commodity prices will drive innovation in industry – by Tyler Hamilton (Toronto Star – December 31, 2011)

December 31, 2011

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.

Has the global economy entered a long period of persistently high, volatile commodity prices? That’s a question asked recently by international consultancy McKinsey & Co., which analyzed a century of data and found that the trend – for at least the next 20 years – doesn’t look good.

The previous 100 years told a different story. Since 1910, it found that the average combined price (inflation-adjusted) of food, agricultural raw materials, metals and energy reached its lowest historical level in the late 1990s.

Sure, there were big dips during the post-World War I depression and the Great Depression a decade later. But major technological advancements in areas such as exploration, extraction and cultivation allowed us during prosperous times to satisfy the demands of a growing global population, while keeping commodity prices at record lows.

“This ability to access progressively cheaper resources underpinned a 20-fold expansion of the world economy,” according to McKinsey’s analysis.

McKinsey & Company Report: Resource revolution: Meeting the world’s energy, materials, food, and water needs (November 2011)

December 31, 2011

McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that provides strategic advise to many of the world’s leading businesses, governments, and institutions. http://www.mckinsey.com/

Click here for the full report: Resource Revolution: Meeting the world’s energy, materials, food, and water needs

The next agro-industrial revolution

Resource prices are rising and becoming more volatile. Without a resource revolution, we all face the prospect of damage to global growth, welfare, and the environment.

The English thinker Thomas Malthus argued in his famous essay1 on the principle of population that there was no longer sufficient land to feed the world’s rapidly growing population, threatening poverty and famine. But an agro-industrial revolution soon transformed the economies of Europe and North America, and his fears proved unfounded.

More recently, conventional wisdom held that market forces would always come to the rescue. Until ten years ago, this hope was largely fulfilled. During most of the 20th century, resource prices—of food, water, energy, steel, for example—declined, despite strong growth in the world’s population and even stronger growth in GDP. Prices fell because of a combination of new low-cost sources of supply and technological innovation.

Anatomy of a quarry fight – Jayme Poisson (Toronto Star – December 31, 2011)

December 31, 2011

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.

MELANCTHON, ONT. — Here in Melancthon, farmers love the land so much they etch pictures of their homesteads on family gravestones.

When they die in this township — an idyllic stretch of rolling farmlands that juts out of Shelburne, just north of Orangeville — they are buried with a handful of the rich soil in their caskets. So it seemed a somewhat bold gesture when strangers suddenly came calling, offering to take the land off their hands.

Ralph and Mary Lynne Armstrong remember their first encounter in the fall of 2006. A man swung round to inquire if they were interested in selling their 80-hectare cattle and pig farm. “You could retire, head to Florida for the winters,” said the man, who evidently didn’t know much about whom he was talking to.

Ralph, whose red-chapped cheeks reveal a lifetime exposed to the elements, laughs at the thought of lounging in the sun. “I could stand sitting in a chair on the beach for five minutes most,” he says. Most mornings, he’s in the barn before dawn.

There were other visits, seven in total.

Timmins Celebrating 100 years – by Karen Bachmann (Timmins Daily Press – December 31, 2011)

December 31, 2011

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Karen Bachmann is the director/curator of the Timmins Museum and a local author.

Timmins centennial kicks off New Year’s Day at the McIntyre Arena — one of the community’s icons

Well, here we are, finally, sitting on the cusp of our 100th anniversary celebrations for Timmins – and yes, we have much to celebrate, commemorate, ponder and enjoy.

From a small boomtown based on a hope and a prayer, Timmins has grown into one of the world’s most important mining municipalities.

We have been home to the world’s largest gold mine, the world’s largest zinc mine and one of the world’s deepest mines. We are still home to the mine that started it all, and it promises to be in production for many years to come.

Timmins also has many heroes in the fields of sports, culture, art, science and business. The city has seen many of its sons and daughters go on to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, be it in the laboratory or on a stage or in an arena or a lecture hall.

Bonuses attracting skilled workers – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – December, 2011)

December 30, 2011

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.

Playing favourites

Backed by a driving soundtrack, the commercial starts with a swooping aerial shot of the Canadian wilderness, the narrative alternating slow-motion shots of young people hard at work with massive machines biting chunks out of the rugged Canadian landscape.

And then comes the voiceover: “Canada: a country rich in natural resources. Rio Tinto: a global leader with over a century of experience in transforming these resources for the products we all need.”

It’s slick, it’s seductive, and it’s modern: this is recruitment in 2011.

Rio Tinto is currently undergoing a nationwide recruitment campaign to fill the hundreds of positions available with its company. Aside from the TV spot, which recently reached more than 5,000 views on YouTube, the company is using social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, along with a dedicated recruitment website, to attract the right applicants.

First Nations have final word on Ring of Fire, says ex-minister – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – December, 2011)

December 30, 2011

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.

Laying the groundwork

A former provincial energy minister-turned-consultant said First Nations will have the ultimate say on how the Ring of Fire mineral developments will unfold, and that includes the location of a proposed ferrochrome smelter.

George Smitherman is pitching for the furnaces to be located in the northwestern Ontario municipality of Greenstone, and the village of Exton, which is already designated as a future ore transloading junction.

Cliffs Natural Resources has maintained Sudbury is the frontrunner among four Northern Ontario communities to land the processing plant, and its 400-plus jobs, but only if provincial power rates are competitive with neighbouring jurisdictions. The international miner is expected to name the site for the plant sometime this year.

“If the company persists in seeing the decision narrowly on the basis of power, then this has great project risk.”

Tight oil rises to front of mind – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – December 30, 2011)

December 30, 2011

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

Just when it seemed the Earth was serving up its last drops of oil, squeezing from tough spots such as the oil sands in northern Alberta and the deepest seas offshore Brazil, a new oil age is emerging.

Tight oil, a catch-all for oil trapped in shale, carbonate or sand formations recoverable with the type of drilling methods that revolutionized the natural-gas side of the business, is reviving the oil sector on a scale that only a couple of years ago would have been unthinkable.

“It turns out there are a lot of big piles of oil in North America,” said Denver-based John Schopp, vice-president for the North Rockies and new ventures at Encana Corp., one of the companies in a hurry to turn it into new revenue.

Calgary-based Encana, a pure natural-gas producer that is feeling the pinch of low gas prices, hopes its new oil thrust will make it a more balanced gas/oil producer.

Timmins faces challenging 2012 – by Ron Grech (Timmins Daily Press – December 30, 2011)

December 30, 2011

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Mayor Laughren hopes to see city’s economy diversify in 2012

There will be much emphasis on mining’s glorious past, and the legendary prospectors who helped found this city, as Timmins celebrates its centennial anniversary over the next year.

High gold prices, the startup of several mines in the area and potential spinoffs from development within the Ring of Fire has spurred a sense of confidence that these glorious days are still with us.

However, the proverbial elephant in the room will always be the fact minerals are a finite resource and some of the mines currently employing people throughout the region are not expected to still be in operation 15 to 20 years from now.

To address this, Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren said one of the key challenges in 2012 will be laying down a foundation to attract alternative industries.

Six energy trends to watch in 2012 – by Shawn McCarthy and Carrie Tait (Globe and Mail – December 29, 2011)

December 29, 2011

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.

OTTAWA AND CALGARY— Canada’s energy industry saw markets for its two main products head in sharply different directions in 2011: Global oil prices averaged a record high $111 (U.S.) per barrel for the year, while natural gas prices in North America languished.

That disconnect prompted North American companies to focus their exploration on crude, and on natural gas plays that offer the prospect of extremely low-cost supply or “liquids-rich” gas that contains high-value propane and butane.

In 2012, companies are likely to continue that shift, while high-profile battles over the oil sands, pipeline projects and fracking will also persist. At the same time, both crude oil and natural gas prices may reverse course modestly during the year, as natural gas demand picks up and supply growth slows, and as global suppliers boost production as developed economies struggle out of recession.

U.S. warns Iran that oil disruption ‘will not be tolerated’ – by Ali Akbar Dareini (Globe and Mail – December 29, 2011)

December 29, 2011

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.

TEHRAN, Iran— The Associated Press – The U.S. warned Iran Wednesday that it will not tolerate any disruption of naval traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran’s navy chief said the Islamic Republic is capable of closing the vital oil route if the West imposes new sanctions targeting Tehran’s oil exports.

Iran’s Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV that closing the strait, which is the only sea outlet for the crucial oil fields in and around the Persian Gulf, “is very easy” for his country’s naval forces.

It was the second such warning by Iran in two days, reflecting Tehran’s concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could hit the country’s biggest source of revenue, its oil sector. On Tuesday, Vice President Mohamed Reza Rahimi threatened to close the strait if the West imposes such sanctions.