Republic of Mining

Oilsands in Canada – by Michael McCullough (Canadian Business Magazine – February 14, 2012)

February 18, 2012

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

Funny, isn’t it, that just as investment in Canada’s vast reserves of oilsands hits a new high—$134 billion worth of projects under construction or soon to start—we should be struck by an unexpected question: Does anyone even want our oil? Given recent events, you couldn’t blame us for wondering.

For virtually all of the oilsands’ 45-year operating history, the overwhelming challenge was at the upstream end, finding technically and economically viable ways of getting the oil out of the sand, and coaxing brave investors to fund them. In the blink of an eye, the greatest obstacle has drifted downstream to the relatively simple matter of getting the stuff to market.

The obvious solution is to build pipelines emanating from northern Alberta to deliver more of our crude to the world. But recent events have shown that to be more problematic than anyone could have guessed.

Certainly the announcement on Jan. 18 was an abrupt and unexpected reality check. Forced to render an immediate decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline proposal by Republican opponents in Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama turned down would-be builder TransCanada Corp.’s application.

What’s wrong with Ontario – and how to make it right – by Adam Radwanski, Tim Kiladze and Tara Perkins (Globe and Mail – February 18, 2012)

February 20, 2012February 18, 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.

“Northern cities, such as Thunder Bay or Sudbury, could become
national leaders in the resource sector, particularly if the
province gets serious about developing the so-called mineral
“Ring of Fire.””

“Ontario’s once thriving mining community has lost some of its
lustre.Not only have Western Canada’s vast oil sands and gas
deposits stolen the spotlight, but foreign giants such as Vale
and Xstrata swooped in in 2006 and bought out Ontario mining
stalwarts such as Inco and Falconbridge. In the years since,
mining has felt more like a part of Ontario’s past than a
focal point of its future.”

“Plus, there remain resources to develop. For those who believe
that Ontario’s northern mining deposits are tapped, look no
further than a company like Detour Gold, which is developing
a gold mine north of Timmins.”

It got most of its attention for its warning of a $30-billion deficit, and its 362 cost-cutting recommendations to help avoid that fate. But the scariest number in Don Drummond’s landmark report to the government of Ontario is a much smaller one: two, as in 2 per cent.

Proud history, uncertain future [Sudbury’s Jewish community] – by Laura Stricker (Sudbury Star – February 18, 2012)

February 18, 2012

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

When I moved to Sudbury from Toronto a year ago, I knew that, as a Jew, it would take some adjusting to go from being one of nearly 180,000 Toronto Jews to one of just a few hundred. president of Sudbury’s Shaar Hashomayim Synagogue, said.

“It’s very challenging to accommodate all those differences in practice and differences in belief within one tent. It’s got to be a pretty big tent.”

However, I never expected finding fresh bagels would be impossible and inquiring about the existence of matzah (unleavened bread eaten by Jews during Passover each year), would be met by blank stares and “did you mean mozzarella?” It wasn’t always this way.

When Sudbury’s first Jewish settler arrived in the late 1800s, and others followed in the years after, a Jewish presence was quickly established in the downtown area by way of a number of thriving businesses and a bustling social life in the then tight-knit community.

Ontario can no longer hide from taxes, restraint – by Jeffrey Simpson (Globe and Mail – February 17, 2012)

February 17, 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.

“There are only hard answers and difficult solutions.” So said Don Drummond and his three fellow commissioners about reforming Ontario’s health-care system. They could have used the same words for the entire government of Ontario.

Ontario’s problem is not that it has big government, per se. If you want to see that, on a per capita basis, head to Alberta or Quebec. As the commission correctly noted, “Ontario runs one of the lowest-cost provincial governments in Canada relative to its GDP and has done so for decades.”

Ontario is at or near the bottom in funding universities. The health-care system is not the most expensive in Canada; the welfare rates are not the most generous. It doesn’t offer $7-a-day daycare, as in Quebec.

No, Ontario’s problem is that the size of its government doesn’t fit its revenues, and hasn’t for a long time. Those revenues have been hit by the slow, steady erosion of Ontario’s competitive position, in the face of which governments kept adding spending for which there were insufficient revenues.

Quebec still favours relaunch of asbestos industry – by Michelle Lalonde (Montreal Gazette – February 16, 2012)

February 17, 2012

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

MONTREAL – The Quebec government continues to favour a relaunch of the asbestos industry – despite a storm of recent controversy, including groundbreaking criminal convictions of two European businessmen for causing thousands of asbestos-related deaths, and far-reaching concerns about the research upon which the province bases its pro-asbestos policy.

Members of the anti-asbestos movement say the Canadian and Quebec governments have long relied on questionable studies produced by researchers at McGill University and elsewhere, funded by the asbestos industry, to promote chrysotile asbestos as relatively harmless if used safely.

McGill is conducting a preliminary review of the research of professor emeritus John Corbett McDonald to determine whether a full investigation should be called into whether some of that research was influenced by the fact it was funded by the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association.

NEOMA vows to fight caribou policy – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – February 17, 2012)

February 17, 2012

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Municipal leaders from across Northeastern Ontario are turning up the heat on the provincial government over its caribou protection plan. And if the mountain refuses to come to Mohammed, then Mohammed will go to the mountain. Ideally, they are hoping for visits both ways.

Thursday in Timmins, members of the North Eastern Ontario Municipal Association (NEOMA) had a lengthy discussion about beefing up its lobby effort. Plans include holding a special lobby day as a group in Queen’s Park, possibly hiring a professional lobbyist or consultant to help with ongoing efforts, and even calling out provincial leaders to visit the Northeast.

Timmins Coun. Mike Doody said he would like to see Premier Dalton McGuinty and others come North to see first hand the impact government policy has on their communities.

“Why can’t we call a Northern Summit?” Doody asked. “The premier has never been to Timmins or visited NEOMA. But not just the premier, we need the leaders from all the parties here so we can tell them where we stand on these issues.”

The “RING” Revisited: An update on Ontario’s famous “Ring of Fire” district – by D’Arcy Jenish – (Canadian Mining Journal – February/March 2012)

February 17, 2012

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.

Richard Fink, Vice President, Technology, with Cleveland-based Cliffs Natural Resources, is a mining industry veteran who knows that discretion is sometimes the better part of valour when it comes to discussing mineral deposits, and the business of putting them into production. Yet, he is eloquent and forceful when describing the potential of the company’s Black Thor chromite deposit and its nearby Big Daddy ore body, both located in northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire” mineral district.

“We have a set of major league ore bodies,” says Fink. “The discovery hole on Black Thor was only drilled in September, 2008 so the paint is still wet on this, but you couldn’t ask for a better project. It’s arguably the best open pit chromite deposit in the world in terms of tonnage, grades and mineable widths.”

He also foresees significant socio-economic spinoff if the discoveries can be turned into producing mines. Indeed, Cliffs is looking at estimated capital investments of $3 billion to build a mine and related infrastructure and the projects would create up to 1,250 permanent jobs.

Canada chromite project costs triple: Cliffs Natural Resources – Reporting By Steve James – (Reuters – February 16, 2012)

February 17, 2012

http://ca.reuters.com/

(Reuters) – The cost of developing what may be the largest chromite deposit in North America has tripled from the original $1 billion estimate, a major participant, Cliffs Natural Resources, said on Thursday.
“Initially we did go out with a billion-dollar price tag for this project,” said Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Joseph Carrabba.

“(Now) We’re in about the $3.3 billion range,” he told Wall Street analysts during a conference call, when asked about the status of the Black Thor chromite deposit Cliffs is developing in northern Canada.

Carrabba said the estimate had risen mainly because road construction in the remote Ontario location had not been included in the original estimate. He said there had been a “sharpening of the estimate” as the project moves through the pre-feasibility stage.

“The transportation and the road has gotten more expensive in this segment than we expected and everything else is falling in line with that.”

Mining and Resource Development in Northern Canada – by David Kilgour: City of Greater Sudbury Municipal Councillor

February 16, 2012

David Kilgour is a City of Greater Sudbury municipal councillor. He gave this presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources, which is considering the federal government’s role in the development of the Ring of Fire, on February 16, 2012.

Mister Chair and Honourable Members,

On behalf of Her Worship, Mayor Marianne Matichuk, members of city council and the citizens of the City of Greater Sudbury, I am pleased to be here this morning to discuss mining and resource development in Northern Canada; a subject that we in Sudbury know something about.

Greater Sudbury is an undisputed global centre of mining expertise. Over the past one hundred and thirty years, billions of dollars worth of Nickel, Copper, Platinum, Gold and many other metals have been mined, milled, smelted and refined in our city. Today, even with more than a century of mining activity, an estimated forty billion dollars of mineral reserves have been identified and constant exploration adds to this total every day.

We are the largest geographic municipality in Ontario; within our municipal
boundaries, approximately seven thousand workers are employed directly in mining production and mineral processing while about twice that number work in the mining supply and services industry. Nowhere else in the world will you find this level of mining activity within a fully urban city.

Building a [mining] workforce [in Thunder Bay and the Northwest] – Special to The Chronicle-Journal (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – February 16, 2012)

February 16, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

With the anticipated boom in the mining sector, industry leaders and organizations are taking steps to ensure the workforce is ready.

On Wednesday the North Superior Workforce Planning Board and the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Committee hosted a forum that looked into some of the employment and training opportunities and challenges that exist in the mining sector in Northwestern Ontario.

More than 200 participants attended the forum. Among the participants were job seekers, mining companies, service providers, government representatives and educators, who discussed how the workforce can be prepared for expanding job opportunities in the mining sector.

Madge Richardson, executive director of North Superior Workforce Planning Board, said the forum was also an opportunity to release a report on the region’s mining industry employment forecasts for the next two, five and 10 years.

All eyes on tight oil’s future – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – February 16, 2012)

February 16, 2012

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

CALGARY – Tight oil, the new oil source unlocked by new drilling technologies, is bearing such good results it could quickly compete with Canada’s oil sands as a top secure supply of North American oil.

With companies like Devon Energy Corp., Talisman Energy Inc., Encana Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. pushing big spending toward tight oil, analysts are ratcheting up their production forecasts for the supplies, which are largely based in the United States.

“Tight oil is changing the landscape in North America,” Steve Fekete, managing consultant at Purvin & Gertz, said at an oil sands industry conference in Calgary this week.

The international energy consultancy predicts production of tight oil in the United States alone could reach between 1.4 million barrels a day and 2.4 million b/d by 2020 – from about 600,000 b/d today derived in large part from the Bakken field in North Dakota.