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NEWS RELEASE: Global Witness leaves Kimberley Process, calls for diamond trade to be held accountable

5th December 2011

http://www.globalwitness.org/

Global Witness today announced that it has left the Kimberley Process, the international certification scheme established to stop the trade in blood diamonds.

The Kimberley Process’s refusal to evolve and address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny has rendered it increasingly outdated, said the group. Despite intensive efforts over many years by a coalition of NGOs, the scheme’s main flaws and loopholes have   not been fixed and most of the governments that run the scheme continue to show no interest in reform.

“Nearly nine years after the Kimberley Process was launched, the sad truth is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, nor whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes” said Charmian Gooch, a Founding Director of Global Witness.

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Ontario Mining Association’s Meet the Miners event attracts a record turnout

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.

By all yardsticks, there was a record turnout of more than 200 delegates for the Ontario Mining Association’s Meet the Miners reception last week.   Large contingents of MPPs, political staff, public service employees from key ministries and mining company representatives were on hand to celebrate the success of mining in Ontario and its contribution to the society and economy of this province.

The reception, which was held at the Sutton Place Hotel near Queen’s Park, followed a day of activities, which included an OMA board of directors meeting, a presentation by Ring of Fire Coordinator Christine Kaszycki, an address by Minister of Northern Development and Mines Rick Bartolucci and team meetings with several Cabinet Ministers and Opposition Leaders.
 
An improved understanding of mining’s important role in the future of Ontario, both as a generator of employment and wealth and as a provider of key materials for building a greener future, appears to be growing.  For the second consecutive year mining received special attention in the Speech from the Throne at Queen’s Park. 

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First Nations group signs deal with Enbridge – by Wendy Stueck (Globe and Mail – December 3, 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.

A day after native groups rallied in a show of force against the Northern Gateway project, a hereditary chief announced that the Gitxsan people had signed on as a partner in the $5.5-billion proposal – allowing Enbridge to make good on its contention that native opposition to the company’s plans is far from unanimous.

But even as Enbridge welcomed the support of the Gitxsan nation and praised the vision of its leaders, dozens of native groups remained staunchly opposed, insisting that the pipeline-and-tanker project poses an unacceptable risk of oil spills and other problems.

“Enbridge has always had a strategy of offering money to lots of First Nations. Lots of First Nations have refused this money,” Chief Jackie Thomas of Saik’uz First Nation, said in a statement, adding that Enbridge is using a “divide and conquer” tactic in an attempt to win over its critics.

The Saik’uz, along with dozens of other bands, have signed a declaration opposing the project, which would ship crude oil from Alberta to the B.C. coast and condensate from Kitimat to Alberta.

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Mounties spied on native protest groups [KI’s Donny Morris included] – by Tim Groves and Martin Lukacs (Toronto Star – December 5, 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.

Although the Strategic Intelligence Report’s profile
of KI is heavily redacted, as with all the “communities
of concern,” it states that KI First Nation “remains
committed to ensuring their concerns related to the
impacts of mining and forestry are addressed by the
Ontario government” and “possible future disputes
could result in blockades and demonstrations.”

The spectre of heightened aboriginal protest has
become a source of anxiety for government and industry.

The federal government created a vast surveillance network in early 2007 to monitor protests by First Nations, including those that would attract national attention or target “critical infrastructure” like highways, railways and pipelines, according to RCMP documents.

Formed after the Conservatives came to power, the RCMP unit’s mandate was to collect and distribute intelligence about situations involving First Nations that have “escalated to civil disobedience and unrest in the form of protest actions.”

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Attawapiskat: await the audit – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – December 2, 2011)

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

HOW does a remote native community of 2,000 people that receives $18 million a year in federal funds alone — $90 million in total since 2006 — wind up in such a wretched state? Attawapiskat on the James Bay coast is not alone among reserves in poverty, but it’s housing conditions are top of mind across Canada as winter sets in. Large families living in shacks and tents is a national disgrace.

Uninformed critics blame the band council without knowing the details. Those details will shed light where it belongs, but everyone must wait for that information before coming to conclusions.

Others say the Harper government is blaming the victim, so to speak, for taking control of local spending out of the band’s hands and ordering an audit. This examination of spending will look at where it comes from as well as where it goes. The Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development department will thus be under as much scrutiny as the band itself. This alone may prove to be the most illuminating aspect of the audit, for it could shed light on a system of bureaucracy that First Nations have long complained is too complicated and restrictive.

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Peter Poppinga: CEO Vale Canada Ltd. and Executive Director, Base Metals, Vale – Bio

Peter Poppinga: Chief Executive Officer Vale Canada Ltd. and Executive Director, Base Metals, Vale

Peter POPPINGA was born in Brazil and began his professional career as a geologist and mining engineer at SAMITRI (Brazilian mining company), where over a 15-year period he held different management positions in exploration, mine planning, production, marketing and sales in Europe and China.

In 1999, Peter joined VALE, and in 2000, he was appointed Manager, Iron Ore at Rio Doce America Inc. (New York).

In 2001, he went on to join Rio Doce International (Belgium) as Director for Iron Ore in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and then as President, responsible for all sales of Iron Ore and Manganese Alloys as well as for the Iron Ore price negotiations for the region.

In February 2006, Peter was appointed President of VALE International S.A. (Switzerland) responsible for all sales of Iron Ore and Manganese Alloys as well as for the global Iron Ore benchmark price negotiations for Vale worldwide.

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Mining Reputations and Blogger Refutations – by Jack Caldwell (I Think Mining.com – December 1, 2011)

Vancouver-based Jack Caldwell is a mining engineer/consultant with Robertson GeoConsultants. His blog www.ithinkmining.com was the only other Canadian mining blog to be included in the Top Ten Mining Blog list by the Australian company Mining IQ. This posting was in response to my recent blog essay titled “The Horrible Reputation of Canada’s Mining Sector.”

Jack Caldwell

Republic of Mining is another great Canadian blog about mining. Stan Sudol is the fellow behind the blog.  I met him once in Toronto.  He is younger than me, although most people are, more energetic than me, and he is more passionate than I am.

His latest major piece on the Republic of Mining is called The Horrible Reputation of Canada’s Mining Sector.  He is stirring up a hornet’s nest with this posting.  I must admire him for his courage.  While I am cynical, and not afraid to call a spade a spade, I am not sure I would have the courage to hit as hard as he hits in this piece.  Here are selected strikes from his piece:

“How things change and how they stay the same! The mining sector has done a terrible job of clearly and transparently explaining the economic benefits and environmental sustainability of their current projects. This increases their costs of doing business through increased red tape, litigation, project slowdowns and potentially bad and unexpected government policies like the Ontario Diamond royalty on DeBeers Canada and the revisions to the province’s mining act.

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Plan sparks Ring of Fire ire – by Ryan Lux (Timmins Daily Press – December 5, 2011)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Process it here or leave it in the ground, union demands

Cliffs Natural Resources’ pledge to seek an exemption from the Ontario Mining Act to ship chromite concentrate from Ontario’s Ring of Fire to Asia for processing has raised the ire of unions and municipalities representing the North.

The company claims the raw chromite ore will undergo value-added processing in Ontario where it will be transformed into chromite concentrate. However, critics say the ore should either be refined in Ontario or left in the ground.

William Brehl, the head of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Maintenance of Way Employees, said the government risks squandering the economic potential of the Northern Ontario mineral bonanza.

“Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government has called the Ring of Fire the most promising mining opportunity in Canada in a century,” said Brehl.

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Big [Nevada gold] discovery by Barrick Gold gets industry attention – by Rob Sabo (Northern Nevada Business Weekly – December 5, 2011)

Northern Nevada Business Weekly: http://www.nnbw.com/Default.aspx

Barrick Gold Corporation’s two new gold discoveries in Nevada represent the biggest mining story in the state for 2011, says Alan Coyner, administrator for the Nevada Division of Minerals.

In September, Barrick said it had found estimated resources of nearly 3.5 million ounces of gold at its Red Hill and Goldrush claims a few miles southeast of the company’s flagship Cortez mining operations 75 miles southwest of Elko.

Barrick is conducting further drilling on the claim area to determine the full scope of the discovery and to move the estimated, or inferred, resource amount into proven reserves.

“It is the story of the year because of its size,” Coyner told a standing-room crowd of top-level mining executives last week at the annual Northwest Mining Association conference at John Ascuaga’s Nugget.

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Debeers Representative Tom Ormsby Speaks to CBC Radio/TV About Attawapiskat Crisis

The housing crisis in Attawapiskat has some wondering why the community isn’t benefitting more from the nearby diamond mine. DeBeers Canada Director of External and Corporate Affairs Tom Ormsby spoke with various CBC Radio and TV interviewers: CBC Televion Interview between Tom Ormsby and Suhana Meharchand – November 30, 2011 http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/canews-22424922/diamonds-at-attawapiskat-27436870.html CBC Radio Ottawa – November …

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[Kirkland Lake History-Harry Oakes] ERNIE’S GOLD: A Prospector’s Tale – by Brian (Chip) Martin


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For an autographed copy of Ernie’s Gold, please contact the author at: chipmartin@sympatico.ca .

Great Christmas Gift: $20.00 plus shipping!

In the early 1900s, young Ernie Martin immigrated from Staffordshire, England, to Canada to seek his fortune. He finally ended up in Kirkland Lake, where gold was to be found if you were willing to work at it. Ernie was. And so was Harry Oakes. The two of them became prospecting partners. Ernie and Harry worked hard and non-stop to find a vein of gold so they could start a mine.

When it finally happened, the mine grew into a huge money-maker for the two of them. Ernie’s first wife, Mary, also was a prospector, and in fact ended up financially far better off than Ernie. Why was that? How is it that multi-millionaire Ernie Martin arrived at the end of his life virtually a pauper? This is a book full of surprises and answers — and a few questions.

Excerpt from Ernie’s Gold: A Prospector’s Tale:

By all accounts, Harry Oakes had a comfortable upbringing, not the sort of background that would likely compel him to dream of riches and spend his life pursuing them. Unlike Ernie Martin and so many other men who stepped off the T&NO train at Swastika, Oakes didn’t see finding gold as a means of escaping modest circumstances.

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Consulting sector buzzing – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – November, 2011)

Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal is a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. 

Euro zone debt, American stagnation and a slowdown in China paint a picture of economic doom and gloom, but Northern Ontario’s mining engineering consulting firms have never been busier.

Sudbury and North Bay staff with Hatch, Stantec, Wardrop, AMEC and Knight-Piésold are busy working on projects across Canada and around the world, and are bullish about the next few years.

The engineering consulting sector in northeastern Ontario constitutes an important sub-section of the region’s mining cluster, employing upwards of 600 engineers, scientists, technicians and administrative staff.

This wasn’t always the case.  Wardrop, now part of Pasadena, California-based Tetra Tech, started out with a three-man operation in 2001 and today has 50 employees at its Sudbury office. Stantec, formerly McIntosh Engineering, had one or two people in Sudbury in 2008 and now has 92, with approximately 100 more in North Bay.

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Ingenuity triumphs at Quadra FNX – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September, 2011)

Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal is a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury. 

Mechanized mining using jumbos and big loaders are the underground mining method of choice throughout much of the Sudbury Basin and other mining camps around the world, but in the copper-rich Morrison Deposit that Quadra FNX is mining at its Levack Complex, “old school narrow vein methods,” using pneumatic hand-held drills, long toms and slushers are making a comeback.

Situated below the historical workings of the former Inco-owned Levack Mine, the Morrison Deposit is a very high-grade copper, nickel and precious metal footwall deposit featuring trunk veins from eight to 40 feet wide, branch veins from three to eight feet wide and tertiary veins measuring from less than a foot to three feet wide.

There was no problem using mechanized equipment to mine the trunk veins, but using jumbos and scoops to chase smaller veins grading between 20 to 30% copper, 1.5% nickel and from five to 40 grams per ton of platinum, palladium and gold, didn’t make sense.

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From camels to flying carpets – by David Robinson (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – November, 2011)

Dr. David Robinson is an economist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. His column is from Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal a magazine that showcases the mining expertise of North Bay, Timmins and Sudbury.  drobinson@laurentian.ca

Mining and the trade in metals shaped the ancient world. And in almost every case, the transportation system for the metal industries was the most advanced you could find at the time.

Whether it was camels moving copper to Jerusalem from mines in Edom, or Phoenician ships ferrying tin from the Tin Islands to the growing cities of the eastern Mediterranean, mining and advanced transportation have gone together like love and marriage. Transportation innovations of the 19th century shaped the mining industry of the 20th century. Without rail, for example, the vast interior deposits of iron, copper and other metals would have been far more costly to deliver to a growing global market. Cities like Sudbury simply could not exist.

The shipping needs of one modern company show the scale of the transportation services required by miners. Vale exports iron ore to China in “capesize” freighters (too large to pass through the Suez Canal) that carry up to 400,000 deadweight tons – the equivalent of 4,000 ore cars. In 2006, Vale ordered a dozen of these for $1.6 billion.

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[Kirkland Lake History] ERNIE’S GOLD: A Prospector’s Tale – by Brian (Chip) Martin

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For an autographed copy of Ernie’s Gold, please contact the author at: chipmartin@sympatico.ca.

Great Christmas Gift: $20.00 plus shipping!

In the early 1900s, young Ernie Martin immigrated from Staffordshire, England, to Canada to seek his fortune. He finally ended up in Kirkland Lake, where gold was to be found if you were willing to work at it. Ernie was. And so was Harry Oakes. The two of them became prospecting partners. Ernie and Harry worked hard and non-stop to find a vein of gold so they could start a mine.

When it finally happened, the mine grew into a huge money-maker for the two of them. Ernie’s first wife, Mary, also was a prospector, and in fact ended up financially far better off than Ernie. Why was that? How is it that multi-millionaire Ernie Martin arrived at the end of his life virtually a pauper? This is a book full of surprises and answers — and a few questions.

Excerpt from Ernie’s Gold: A Prospector’s Tale:

By the time Mabel (Fetterley) had arrived in the Swastika area, Mary Violette had already been in mining country for several years. Mary came from even farther away, the small farm community of Goshen, Indiana. She would have a significant impact on the life of Ernie Martin.

Mary was born in 1874 on a farm at New Paris, just south of Goshen, the second of five children of Benjamin and Caroline Violette. Hers was a prominent family in the area, some of whom opted to drop the final “e” in their name. Mary’s father was the youngest of ten children born to John Wesley and Chloe Violette, who were among the area’s first settlers. One of Benjamin’s older brothers, John H., was not content to stay in farming and in the spring of 1850 joined the California Gold Rush. He was twenty.

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