Republic of Mining

Private ownership helps First Nation fix housing problems – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – February 6, 2012)

February 7, 2012

This article came from Wawatay News: http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Chief Franklin Paibomgai of Whitefish River First Nation is happy to talk housing. Despite the prevalence of housing woes all across northern Ontario First Nations, the days of housing concerns in Whitefish River – just north of Manitoulin Island – are a thing of the past.

Paibomgai laughs when asked about the last time housing has come up at a band meeting. Housing has not been on the agenda for years, he says. It used to be a constant thing – someone wanting a new home, or needing renovations on a current house. But now, thanks to a dramatic shift in how the community looks at housing, there are subdivisions going up and a community-owned construction company doing the work.

In 2003 Whitefish River’s housing situation was similar to many First Nations across northern Ontario. Existing houses were in poor condition. There was a long list of people wanting new homes. And the housing money provided by the federal government was barely enough to complete upkeep on existing houses, never mind build anything new.

The Devastating Costs of the Amazon Gold Rush – by Donovan Webster (Smithsonian Magazine – February, 2012)

February 7, 2012

This article is from: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/?ref=home

Spurred by rising global demand for the metal, miners are destroying invaluable rainforest in Peru’s Amazon basin

It’s a few hours before dawn in the Peruvian rainforest, and five bare light bulbs hang from a wire above a 40-foot-deep pit. Gold miners, operating illegally, have worked in this chasm since 11 a.m. yesterday. Standing waist-deep in muddy water, they chew coca leaves to stave off exhaustion and hunger.

In the pit a minivan-size gasoline engine, set on a wooden cargo pallet, powers a pump, which siphons water from a nearby river. A man holding a flexible ribbed-plastic hose aims the water jet at the walls, tearing away chunks of earth and enlarging the pit every minute until it’s now about the size of six football fields laid side by side. The engine also drives an industrial vacuum pump. Another hose suctions the gold-fleck-laced soil torn loose by the water cannon.

At first light, workers hefting huge Stihl chain saws roar into action, cutting down trees that may be 1,200 years old. Red macaws and brilliant-feathered toucans take off, heading deeper into the rainforest. The chain saw crews also set fires, making way for more pits.

Australia-China relationship a lesson for Ottawa [about resources] – by Matthew Fisher (National Post – February 7, 2012)

February 7, 2012

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

Canadians are about to discover that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has caught China fever. The Prime Minister arrives Tuesday in Beijing to shout that Canada is open for business.

Australia caught China fever some years ago and because of it the Land Down Under has been creating a staggering amount of wealth out of one of the greatest resource booms of all time.

To little fanfare elsewhere, Australia’s trade to China has tripled over the past five years to more than $60-billion a year.

When imports are included, trade between the countries is $80-billion a year, compared with a relatively piddling $30-billion a year of trade between Canada and China.

Glencore-Xstrata deal meets shareholder opposition – by Sarah Young and Eric Onstad (Reuters – February 7, 2012)

February 7, 2012

This article came from: www.reuters.com

LONDON (Reuters) – Two top 10 shareholders in miner Xstrata said on Tuesday they would vote against a takeover by commodities trader Glencore, threatening the industry’s biggest deal to create a powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading.

Standard Life Investments, the fourth largest investor in Xstrata, and Schroders head of UK equities said the deal to buy the remaining 66 percent of Xstrata for $41 billion undervalued their shares.

The two own 3.6 percent of Xstrata, according to Thomson Reuters data. Their statements may persuade others to follow suit and block Glencore’s ambition to create a company to rival mining heavyweights such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

“I’m in complete agreement with Standard Life and we intend to do exactly the same. This is a fabulous deal for Glencore, it’s probably a great deal for the Xstrata management, but it’s a poor deal for Xstrata’s majority shareholders,” Shroders’ Richard Buxton told Reuters.

Xstrata agrees $41bn Glencore takeover deal – by Sarah Young and Eric Onstad (Mineweb.com – February 7, 2012)

February 7, 2012

This article came from: www.mineweb.com

In the biggest merger in the mining sector since Rio and Alcan, Glencore and Xstrata will form a company worth $90bn, Mick Davis will be CEO.

LONDON (Reuters) – Commodities trader Glencore agreed on Tuesday to buy the remaining 66 percent of miner Xstrata for $41 billion in a record deal to create a powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading.

In what has been billed as a merger of equals, Glencore, the world’s largest diversified commodities trading house, and Xstrata will form a company worth $90 billion to rival other mining heavyweights such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

The new group, which will have mining assets from New Caledonia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, are expected to use their combined clout to look at other deals, including potentially a takeover of Anglo American, analysts say.

“M&A is a space that you’d expect the combined group to be in,” Xstrata chief executive Mick Davis, who will be CEO of the enlarged Glencore, told Reuters.

Canada doesn’t know how to protect its [resource] interests [from China] – by Terry Glavin (Ottawa Citizen – February 4 2012)

February 6, 2012

This column is from the: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/index.html

“We are sitting ducks.”

That’s the way Anthony Campbell, the former head of the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat of the Privy Council Office, put it to me the other day. We were talking about Beijing’s designs on Canada’s energy resources, Beijing’s adroit cunning in enfeebling Canadian foreign policy, and how Canadians have been rendered unable to cope with the drama as it unfolds.

The Chinese Year of the Dragon began inauspiciously with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Industry Minister Joe Oliver riffing on a clever talking-points stratagem dreamed up by neophyte Conservative war-room hangabouts. It featured American billionaire socialists infiltrating into Canada to ambuscade the construction of Canada’s last-hope economic lifeline, to China.

Most Canadians had probably never even heard of the Enbridge project, which is a plan to build a huge bitumen tube from Alberta’s oilsands to saltwater on the northern British Columbia coast. Still, whatever Ottawa was shouting about, it seemed to contain enough resemblance to a kernel of truth. So it worked for a while.

The World from Berlin: Germany Playing Catch-Up in Scramble for Resources – by David Gordon Smith and Christopher Cottrell (Spiegel Online International – October 14, 2011)

February 6, 2012

This article is from Germany’s Speigel Online International: http://www.spiegel.de/international/

Chancellor Angela Merkel has signed a commodities deal with Mongolia during her visit to the Central Asian country. The agreement is intended to secure access to much-needed raw materials for German industry. But commentators point out that it will take more than just a piece of paper to win the scramble for rare earths.

At first glance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to visit Mongolia precisely at a time when Europe’s debt crisis is hotter than ever might seem peculiar. But cool-headed economic interests were behind the trip: The Central Asian country has raw materials that Germany’s industry desperately needs.

On Thursday, the governments of the two countries signed a commodity partnership agreement. The deal promises, among other things, that no limits will be imposed on the quantity of raw materials that Mongolia supplies to Germany. Mongolia, for its part, wants to benefit from the deal by making sure that the raw materials are processed in the country.

12 companies join German commodity alliance – by Michael Hogan (Reuters – January 30, 2012)

February 6, 2012

This article is from: http://af.reuters.com/

* German companies plan cooperation on commodity sourcing

* Will consider investment in commodity projects

* Aim to secure commodity supply for German industry

HAMBURG, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Twelve German companies have joined the new German alliance aimed at securing raw materials supplies in the face of growing competition for key commodities, the Federation of German industry BDI said on Monday.

In October 2010, Germany’s government approved a new commodities strategy aimed at helping German industry secure supplies in the face of intense competition from China and other newly-industrialised countries which will include partnerships with supplier countries and greater cooperation between German commodity consumers.

A series of major German companies have been involved in talks about a project lad by German industrial association BDI to invest in foreign commodity projects and 12 have now agreed to join, the BDI said.

Sudbury College officially opens doors of Xstrata Nickel energy centre

February 6, 2012

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

With the support of a $2 million contribution from Ontario Mining Association member Xstrata Nickel, Cambrian College in Sudbury has officially opened the doors of its new energy research facility. The Xstrata Nickel Sustainable Energy Centre is home to cutting-edge applied research and education programs for sustainable energy.

Cambrian’s three-year Energy Systems Technology, Environmental Monitoring and Impact Assessment programs will be run out of this 16,000 square foot plus $5-million building. The centre will also house research facilities to be used by students, entrepreneurs and the general public.

“With this new centre, we are expanding our capacity for applied research and making room for growth,” said Sylvia Barnard, President of Cambrian College. “We are focused on applied research because it gives students in various programs real-life experience working with prototypes and entrepreneurs.”

Plan Nord: Jean Charest says half of northern Quebec will be protected – by René Bruemmer (Montreal Gazette – February 6, 2012)

February 6, 2012

This article came from: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

Environmentalists celebrate increased safeguarding of extra 100,000 square kilometres of land

MONTREAL – Calling it perhaps the largest environmental conservation project on the planet, Quebec premier Jean Charest unveiled how the government plans to safeguard 50 per cent of the province’s northern territory – a region the size of France – from industrial development Sunday.

Chief among the measures was the announcement that 20 per cent of the region will be declared protected areas by 2020, nearly twice the amount of land Quebec first pledged would be granted full protection.

Another 30 per cent of the land will be closed to mining and hydroelectric projects, although other development projects deemed to have less impact on the ecology, like ecotourism, for instance, will be permitted. The nature of those development projects have yet to be defined.

The announcement was met with cautious approval by conservation groups, some of who have characterized the government’s Plan Nord vision to invest $80 billion in energy development, forestry, mining and tourism over 25 years as a marketing plan to sell off natural resources to foreign countries.

Caterpillar likes to play hardball — so let’s play hardball – by David Olive (Toronto Star – February 6, 2012)

February 6, 2012February 6, 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.

Recession-ravaged London, Ont., needn’t lose its status as one of the world’s leading locomotive manufacturing centres.

Yes, that is the plan revealed Friday by U.S.-based Caterpillar Inc., owner of London’s 90-year-old Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. (EMD). Caterpillar has abruptly shut down the firm just 18 months after buying it. Cat is poised to ship EMD’s specialized equipment and technology — intellectual property developed in London over several generations — to low-wage jurisdictions outside Canada. Naturally, Caterpillar presents this outrage as a fait accompli.

Already there are calls for a government inquiry to determine how such industrial rape can be prevented in future. A good idea. But we also should and can quash Cat’s plans for EMD.

When it paid a bargain $820 million for EMD in 2010, Caterpillar appeared to be getting a mere factory. What it actually got its hands on is one of the global industry’s few major locomotive manufacturers. (EMD’s sole major North American rival is General Electric Co.) EMD is richly endowed with made-in-Canada technology and boasts the largest customer base in the world.

Quadra FNX bidders [KGHM Polska Miedz] tour Sudbury – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – February 6, 2012)

February 6, 2012

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

Getting to know their neighbours in areas in which their company operates is the regular course of business for Polish mining company KGHM, say three of its executives.

The company prides itself on its relationship with employees at its three mines and two smelters in southwest Poland, and the communities they are in. KGHM has made what it is essentially a $3.5-billion offer to acquire Quadra FNX, which has holdings in Sudbury, the United States and South America.

Shareholders will vote on that offer this month. The company is calling it a “friendly acquisition” in which it will pay shareholders up to $3 billion — or $15 a share — and take on the company’s $500-million debt.

KGHM general director Jarek Romanovski, business development officer Chr is Kubacki and director Artur Wienowski visited Sudbury this week to meet with Quadra FNX managers and employees, and leaders in the community.

NEWS RELEASE: Credibility of Governmental Officials and CEOs Experience Biggest Drops Ever, 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer Finds

February 6, 2012

Trust in Government Suffers a Severe Breakdown Across the Globe

NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Blame for the financial and political chaos of 2011 landed at the doorstep of government, as trust in that institution fell a record nine points to 43 percent globally, according to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer. In seventeen of the 25 countries surveyed, government is now trusted by less than half to do what is right. In twelve, it trails business, media, and non-governmental organizations as the least trusted institution.

France, Spain, Brazil, China, Russia, and Japan, as well as six other countries, saw government trust drop by more than ten points. Government officials are now the least credible spokespeople, with only 29 percent considering them credible. Nearly half of the general population — the first time the Barometer looked at this broader group — say they do not trust government leaders to tell the truth.

“Business is now better placed than government to lead the way out of the trust crisis,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO, Edelman. “But the balance must change so that business is seen both as a force for good and an engine for profit.”

Miners look to a future of automated operations – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – February 6, 2012)

February 6, 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.

Most mines are already desolate, vast landscapes filled with the hum of haul trucks and only a few humans. But in years to come they will be even more deserted, as more companies find ways to run their operations from control centres thousands of kilometres away.

The industry’s ongoing efforts to increase automation are expected eventually to improve safety, increase production and lower maintenance costs. Remote operations could also ease labour shortages by moving hard-to-fill jobs in the middle of nowhere to more desirable urban centres.

So far the technology is only being tested by a few big-name mining companies, and it’s too soon to tell just how much money it will save, particularly when expenditures are a closely guarded secret.

Putting our faith in NGOs the way to go – by Warren Kinsella (Sudbury Star – February 6, 2012)

February 6, 2012

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

QMI Agency

Here’s the truth. It couldn’t have been a very good political fundraiser: None of us can now recall who was speaking. Most likely, it was a Conservative — because we were exiled to the furthest corner in the room, with some of the other Liberals in attendance.

While the speaker wasn’t at all memorable, the pleasant woman at our table was. She was employed by a mortgage broker association.

Asked what was new in her field of work, she said: “Subprime mortgages. We’re quite worried about them. If things unfold the way we think they might, it could be very, very bad.” How bad? she was asked. “They could cause a new recession, we think,” she said.

Subprime mortgages, she explained, were home loans designed to help people who were high risk. Smaller banks in the southern U.S. loved them.