Republic of Mining

China’s oil-sands deal will have lasting impact – by Campbell Clark (Globe and Mail – January 5, 2012)

January 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.

Campbell Clark writes about foreign affairs from Ottawa

Meet the new boss: Jiang Jemin, the 55-year-old chairman of China National Petroleum Corp. He’s about to become an Alberta employer.

This week, Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. triggered an option on a 2009 deal with CNPC subsidiary PetroChina, so the Chinese oil giant is not just a shareholder but also the owner and operator of the MacKay River oil sands project, to open in 2014. In December, another Chinese firm, Sinopec, closed a $2.2-billion deal for Daylight Energy Ltd.

This is new and will have a lasting impact. Chinese firms aren’t just buying stakes, they’re buying whole operations. It’s a new phase of China’s step-by-step Canada strategy. It will change not just the oil patch but Canada’s foreign policy. And a game of international energy politics is afoot in Canada’s West.

These deals are different because Canadians will see how Chinese firms operate, not just invest. They’re state-controlled companies, with executives such as Mr. Jiang who have moved among the Communist Party, government and big oil.

Canada’s asbestos industry on its last legs – by Bertrand Marotte (Globe and Mail – January 5, 2012)

January 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.

MONTREAL— The “miracle fibre” that helped drive Quebec’s economy for more than a century now represents an industry near death, despite government efforts to keep it afloat.

In its heyday in the mid-1960s, Canada’s asbestos industry employed thousands and produced about 40 per cent of the world’s supply of the silky-white product known for its resistance to fire, rust and rot. It was used widely in construction throughout North America, including at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

Now, it’s known more for being ripped out of walls as a danger to public health. Many developed nations have banned it outright, and critics warn it’s impossible to ensure its safe use in developing countries. These concerns over a known carcinogen have put the industry on its last legs.

Production at one mine has been halted until it can get refinancing, and another miner – Thetford Mines, Que.-based LAB Chrysotile –filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, leaving no active operations in Canada.

ONTARIO NDP NEWS RELEASE: First Nations injunction win shows why Province must consult: Vanthof

January 4, 2012

[John Vanthof is the MPP for Timiskaming – Cochrane]

January 4, 2011

TEMISKAMING SHORES — Today, after Wahgoshig First Nation won an injunction to prevent a junior mining company, Solid Gold Resources, from continuing exploration on Wahgoshig territory without proper consultation, Timiskaming – Cochrane MPP John Vanthof strongly criticized the McGuinty government’s failure to fulfill its obligations to consult with First Nations.

“By ignoring First Nations at the outset of the exploration process, the government is in fact slowing down mine development and hindering economic opportunities throughout the province,” added Vanthof. “It benefits all Northerners to ensure resource development is done in a way that maximises economic benefits and sustainability for local communities. That means better consultation and accommodation from the outset, not lengthy legal battles.”

“Lack of action from the government forced Wahgoshig First Nation to appeal to the courts to settle a dispute which could have been avoided altogether through proper consultation,” said Vanthof.

MINING WATCH NEWS RELEASE: Diamonds and Development: Attawapiskat and the Victor Diamond Mine

November 5, 2015January 4, 2012

http://www.miningwatch.ca/

Thursday, December 15, 2011

In the last two weeks there has been an intense media storm around the current housing crisis in Attawapiskat, a remote Cree community on the coast of James Bay. The crisis is occurring in the context of many long-standing issues that are certainly not unique to Attawapiskat. Hopefully, the current attention will provide some immediate relief for the situation in Attawapiskat but also help drive an eventual resolution to the root issues that are causing the current crisis.

One element of the story that’s getting some attention and is of particular interest to MiningWatch is the fact that the community is ‘host’ to DeBeers’ Victor diamond mine, located 90 km west of the community, upstream on the Attawapiskat River, within the traditional territory of the Omushkego Cree. The juxtaposition is stark: a diamond mine producing millions of dollars of a sparkling luxury item, next to the poverty and infrastructure deficits in Attawapiskat. It has led people to ask us: if there are millions of dollars of diamonds being taken from their traditional territory, why aren’t the conditions in the community improving?

NEWS RELEASE: [SUDBURY-BASED] BESTECH REACHES 100 EMPLOYEES

September 7, 2018January 4, 2012

January 3, 2012

BESTECH recently welcomed its 100th employee to the team, which is a significant milestone for the Northern Ontario engineering firm. Demonstrating that BESTECH does not plan to slow down any time soon, company representatives anticipate an additional 30% growth in employees for 2012.

Their hundredth employee is a true testament to BESTECH’s impressive growth since its inception in 1995. From its early days as a startup, BESTECH Co-CEOs Marc Boudreau and Denis Pitre operated the business out of a modest single office space on Lorne Street, which has magnified to 14,000 square feet, and the firm now comprises a total of four locations in three cities: Sudbury, Timmins and Toronto. These developments occurred as a result of continued expansion servicing various sectors.

BESTECH’s achievement of the 100-employee milestone would not have been realized without its supportive clients who fuel its growth, excellent employees who make BESTECH a great place to work, and visionary and supportive management that keeps the entire organization on track and leads the firm in the right direction.

A cautious optimism for coal – by David Ebner and Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – January 4, 2012)

January 4, 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.

RIDLEY ISLAND, B.C. AND VANCOUVER – The sky is a hard grey and the small mountains of coal piled a dozen metres high are thick black. From this outpost in northwestern British Columbia, about 700 kilometres from Vancouver, coal trundles on conveyors from train cars to the piles, and then onward to docked ships destined for steel mills in China, Japan, and South Korea.

New equipment – huge rings of steel – lays nearby. The gear will increase the capacity of Ridley Terminals Inc. to unload coal from trains, one step in a four-year, multimillion-dollar effort to double exports to 24-million tonnes a year, and handle new and increased production from coal mines in British Columbia, Alberta and the United States.

It is the second time Canada has bet big on higher coal exports to steel makers in Asia. Last time, the bet on Japan failed badly when the forecasted prolonged boom didn’t last. Today, the same belief, and certainty, has been attached to China, the world’s largest steel-producing nation.

Of Beijing, bitumen and Ottawa’s foreign-takeover review – (Globe and Mail Editorial – January 4, 2012)

January 4, 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.

The acquisition by the state-controlled PetroChina Co. Ltd.’s of 100 per cent of the MacKay River oil-sands project is a vivid reminder that the federal government’s review of Investment Canada’s foreign-takeover criteria has not yet been issued – more than a year after the messy episode in which BHP Billiton was not allowed to proceed with its bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.

In fact, Tony Clement, who was then the minister of industry, approved this same PetroChina acquisition two years ago – because the transaction already included an option to turn a 60-per-cent interest into sole ownership, and it was Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., not PetroChina, that exercised its option – to sell, that is.

The government has sent mixed signals over the years. In 2007, it introduced new rules for state-controlled foreign companies so that they would do business on commercial principles, rather than as agents of their home country’s policies. And in the 2008 election, the Conservatives said they would not permit export of bitumen from the oil sands for processing elsewhere – which might be justifiable on commercial grounds. On the other hand, the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, which the government favours, would facilitate the export of that same bitumen to China.

Chinese take helm of MacKay River oil sands project – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – January 4, 2012)

January 4, 2012

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

The friendly “divorce” announced Tuesday between PetroChina and Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. puts a Chinese company in charge of a Canadian oil sands project for the first time. Is it ready?

Yes, says Zhiming Li, president and CEO of Dover Operating Corp., the company that will operate the asset on behalf of a PetroChina subsidiary, Cretaceous Oilsands Holdings Ltd.

In an interview, Mr. Li said Dover’s strategy is to establish itself as a Canadian company staffed predominantly by Canadians. “Some 90% of the employees are Canadian experts,” he said. “These people are well experienced with lots of knowledge in developing SAGD projects. We will use local talent to do the project execution. We expect no problem.”

With a staff of 90, Dover plans to add 50 to 60 people this year as it moves ahead with its first project in Alberta, MacKay River. Its strategy is to ramp up to 150,000 barrels a day in four phases. The first phase, 35,000 barrels a day, is scheduled for startup in late 2014.

Nickel on a rollercoaster – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 3, 2012)

January 3, 2012

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

The European economic malaise and competition from upstart nickel pig iron producers will likely combine to keep the price of nickel fluctuating in 2012, says a metals analyst.

Price volatility is bound to continue next year, says Montreal-based Terry Ortslan of TSO & Associates. From a high of $16.91 a pound in 2007 on the London Metals Exchange to a low of $6.65 a pound in 2009, nickel averaged about $12.25 a pound in 2011, said Ortslan.

“Recently, the prices are struggling at $8 a pound,” Orstlan said last week, after returning from a business trip to China, where nickel continues to be in high demand.

Ortslan says $7 a pound would be a “low target” for 2012, although he would not rule out that possibility because of Europe’s economic woes and China’s ongoing production from non-traditional sources.

Vale hatches a plan [worker shortages] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – January 3, 2012)

January 3, 2012

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

Vale Ltd. is devising strategies to deal with one of its greatest challenges — the looming shortage of skilled tradespeople, and production and maintenance workers for its Canadian operations.

The Brazil-based miner has launched a country-wide advertising campaign to convince Canadians they can live the good life in Sudbury, rather than having to fly in and out of mining or oil sands operations.

Vale expects to hire at least 300 full-time people in 2012, mostly engineers and skilled tradespeople. But it will be looking for miners as well. A recent call for 60 production and maintenance workers netted 800 resumes, said Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson.

Reality jostles with hope in advance of natives’ meeting with Harper – by Bruce Campion-Smith (Toronto Star – January 02, 2012)

January 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.

OTTAWA—A northern Ontario aboriginal community in crisis, a high-level summit to tackle chronic problems facing Canada’s First Nations people — and hopes that those problems may finally be solved.

That could be the storyline going into the Jan. 24 meeting between the federal government and Canada’s First Nations leaders.

But that was the backdrop in late 2005, when then-prime minister Paul Martin, premiers and the leaders of five native groups huddled to hammer out the Kelowna Accord, an agreement to invest $5 billion in priorities facing aboriginal communities.

Within a year, that deal was dead, killed by the newly elected Conservative government.

After Attawapiskat, what? – by Jim Foulds (Toronto Star – December 29, 2011)

November 5, 2015January 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.

Jim Foulds is a freelance writer in Thunder Bay. He was the MPP for Port Arthur from 1971 to 1987.

When Canadians first saw the news about Attawapiskat they knew that no matter who is at fault, nobody in Canada should be using a plastic bucket for a toilet and have to dump it outside on a regular basis. Nobody should be calling a shack with mould on the walls home. And nobody in Ontario should be paying $23.50 for six apples and four small bottles of juice.

With little evidence, Prime Minister Stephen Harper charged that the funds that the federal government had transferred to the reserve over several years had been mismanaged. With no consultation he put the band under third party management.

(Earlier this year several flooded towns along the Assiniboine River called for provincial and federal help. Think how the municipalities would have reacted if, immediately after asking for aid, they had been placed under third party management.)

The Harper message to Attawapiskat was clear. Blame the victims; discredit the messenger; and sow doubt in the minds of Canadians.

Will Quebec’s Plan Nord boost its cachet as a jurisdiction of choice? – by Alisha Hiyate (Mining Markets – December 2011)

January 3, 2012

http://www.miningmarkets.ca/

It’s probably safe to say that no one is happier about Plan Nord — Quebec’s 25-year plan to stimulate investment in the province’s vast northern reaches — than André Gaumond.

The founder, president and CEO of project generator Virginia Mines (VGQ-T) has been preaching the gospel of northern Quebec’s mineral potential for more than a decade, well before the provincial government unveiled its official Plan Nord policy this May.

“We’ve been selling or promoting the ‘Plan Nord’ for 15 years, travelling everywhere, talking with investors and the investment community and telling them that this. . . area has a huge potential,” Gaumond says. “We will find many mines, many deposits there: It is the future of the mining industry in Canada. This is what we’ve been telling people for years and years.”

Under Plan Nord, the Quebec government will spend $2.1 billion over the next five years to make Quebec north of the 49th parallel — an area that accounts for 72% of the province’s landmass — more accessible for exploration and development.

Mining Boom in Quebec: Alain-Jean Beauregard – by Brian Sylvester (The Gold Report – December 23, 2011)

January 3, 2012

http://www.theaureport.com/

While many jurisdictions are working hard to prevent mining or mineral exploration, the province of Quebec is encouraging it. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Alain-Jean Beauregard, founder of Geologica Inc., a geological consulting firm based in Val-d’Or, talks about the shining future of gold mining in Quebec.

The Gold Report: The province of Quebec where Geologica is based offers some of the best infrastructure and mineral exploration incentives of any state or province in North America. Why has Quebec embraced mining when so many other jurisdictions are working hard to prevent mining or mineral exploration at all?

Alain-Jean Beauregard: Like forestry, mining has traditionally been a region developer in the province of Quebec. Native land issues have already been settled for large parts of the province. Mining is an important job creator—one of the most important in the province. It’s good income for the province because of revenues from taxes. Quebec is happy to have mining companies in the province.

The top [investment] mining bloggers, newsletter writers and speakers: our list of who to follow for investment advice – by Michael Allan McCrae (Mining.com – January 2, 2012)

January 3, 2012

http://www.mining.com/ Mining is fueled by investors and the lure of the next lucky strike. Here are some of the investment writers we like to follow, subscriber-based newsletter writers, as well as bloggers, speakers and news publications. The list is a personal selection. Any such list is subjective depending upon the investment advice offered and the …