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Canadian energy sector marches to its own drummer – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – November 29, 2011)

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

Mr. Edwards said the strategy is shifting to direct
communication with the public to win “social licence”
from one that had been focused on targeting politicians
to enable them to develop appropriate policies.
(Claudia Cattaneo – Financial Post)

It’s a measure of how much the Canadian energy sector marches to its own drummer that Murray Edwards, one of its top investors and entrepreneurs, regards building pipelines to new markets and improving its image through better communication as the top issues facing it next year.

The next two? Project execution to achieve higher productivity and manage costs, and commodity prices. It’s telling that the challenges are associated with managing growth, in contrast to worries now consuming the market, such as the eurozone crisis and fears of another global downturn.

Opening new markets for Canada’s oil and improving communication efforts shot to the top of the industry’s to-do list for 2012 as a result of this month’s announcement by the United States to delay a decision on whether to allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries in the U.S. Gulf Coast, said the influential billionaire, a leading investor and chairman or vice-chairman of companies such as oil and gas producer Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and oil services firm Ensign Energy Services Inc.

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Vale board approves US$21.4bn investment budget for 2012 – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – November 29, 2011)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Iron ore gets the lion’s share of Vale’s project capex budget next year, with the bulk of investment allocated to Brazilian projects and operations.

RENO, NV – Brazilian über iron ore miner Vale Monday announced its board of directors approved US$12.9 billion for projects, US$2.4 billion for research and development, and US$6.1 billion for sustaining operations in 2012.

The company also reinforced estimated mining production for 2012 including 312 million metric tons of iron ore, 50 million metric tons of pellets, 16.6 million metric tons of coal, 300,000 metric tons of nickel, 340,000 metric tons of copper, 650,000 metric tons of potash and 8 million metric tons of phosphate rock.

Vale now has 20 main projects now under construction to implement organic growth, comprising 75% of the $12.9 billion budgeted for project development next year. The bulk of the investment will be made in Brazil, which gets 63.7% of the total 2012 investment budget, while Canada will receive 11.7%.

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Keystone is an early warning for Athabasca – by David Olive (Toronto Star – November 29, 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

U.S. President Barack Obama shocked the Calgary oilpatch earlier this month in delaying approval of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would carry Athabasca crude oil across the U.S. Great Plains to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. That step has been greeted in some quarters here as an act of hostility toward Canada.

But it’s the opposite. The U.S. did everyone a favour by putting the brakes on this thing. The environmental impact is clear as mud. And the long-term economic viability not only of Keystone but Athabasca itself is by no means assured.

TransCanada, in which I own shares, earned its setback, playing almost perfectly to the widespread distrust of business in these times. The firm asserted, falsely, that Keystone was essential to U.S. energy security; that halting its progress would spark some kind of national U.S. emergency; and that Keystone had been more thoroughly vetted than any project of its kind.

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The people vs gold – a global battleground – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – November 29, 2011)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Recent public opposition to gold mining developments in Peru and in Bulgaria are indicative of a trend towards opposition to new mines which are accused of threatening water supplies.

LONDON – More and more it seems that local populations, perhaps stirred-up  by often misleading information from environmental activists, are protesting – sometimes violently – against the establishment of significant gold mining operations in their areas.

For example, in Peru, there is an ongoing protest by the citizens of Cajamarca against the development of the Newmont/Buenaventura $3.4 billion Minas Conga gold mine while in Europe’s Balkan region the citizens of the town of Krumovgrad in Bulgaria are currently conducting  a campaign against the development of an open pit gold mine by Dundee Precious Metals.  Both these to an extent also pit the locals against central government which sees the potential benefits of the respective mining operations to their revenues and in terms of increased employment.

The above protests revolve around water supply concerns, as have a number of other recent protests against mining operations.  In the case of Minas Conga, this is something of an embarrassment to Peru’s left-leaning new President, Ollanta Humala, whose government has so far supported the mining companies in this particular case because of its potential importance to the economy.

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York University to offer mining-focused MBA – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – November 28, 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.

The Schulich School of Business at York University is capitalizing on the looming leader shortage in the mining sector by offering a first-of-its-kind MBA specialization in global mining management starting next fall.

The two-year program, expected to be announced Monday, aims to appeal to future executives, investment bankers, analysts and other professionals eyeing a top-level career in the risk-driven resources sector.

“It’s great succession planning for the industry,” said Richard Ross, an executive in residence at Schulich and former chief executive at Inmet Mining Corp. The Toronto-based MBA program is expected to crank out future mining executives at a time when many of the current, often colourful, company founders are poised for retirement.

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Investigation continues at [Sudbury’s] Creighton Mine [seismic event] – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – November 28, 2011)

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

Vale officials are expected to continue assessing the damage to Creighton Mine this week after a 3.2-magnitude seismic event that occurred about noon Friday. No employees were injured and were all immediately accounted for in refuge stations shortly after the event, said Vale spokeswoman Angie Robson.

Before releasing personnel from those refuge stations, affected areas were cleared for seismicity, according to Vale’s emergency protocol, Robson said Saturday. Employees who were working at the 7,200-level or lower did not return to surface until about 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Activity is being restricted below the 7,200-foot level and activity at the mine’s 6,800- foot level and above is continuing as usual, said Robson. Creighton has been mined for 100 years or more, said retired health and safety activist Homer Seguin.

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Mining industry faces labour crunch, volatility, high costs: Deloitte – by Lauren Krugel (Canadian Business Magazine – November 27, 2011)

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

To view the report, please visit http://www.deloitte.com/ca/mining-trends

The Canadian Press – The global mining industry is facing a severe labour squeeze, which means companies must be creative in finding enough talent to run their operations, says a report released Sunday by a major professional services firm.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. said there simply are not enough workers to power the huge growth expected in the mining sector — capital expenditures this year are estimated to be US$113 billion, 50 per cent higher than 2010 — and firms must look at unconventional ways to fill the gap, like doing more work remotely.

“Given the acute shortage of key talent, delivering on all these projects may be near impossible,” said the report, called Tracking the Trends 2012. Glenn Ives, Deloitte Canada’s Americas mining leader, said demographics are at the heart of the problem.

“There is a 20-year gap in the mining industry. If you think about it, mining was not that great an industry to join in the 80s and the 90s, and so there weren’t a lot of new graduates joining the mining industry in that time frame,” he said in an interview.

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DELOITTE NEWS RELEASE: Canadian miners face intensifying global challenges

Deloitte unveils top 10 trends for 2012

To view the report, please visit http://www.deloitte.com/ca/mining-trends

Toronto, November 28, 2011 — Escalating social, economic, and political factors are forcing mining companies in Canada and around the world to incorporate more complex scenarios into their strategic planning, according to a new report from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL). Released today, the report – Tracking the trends 2012 – provides an analysis of the top 10 trends expected to impact the mining sector at an accelerated rate in the year ahead.

“Gone are the days when conversations about commodity prices were confined to industry analysts,” said Glenn Ives, Americas Mining Leader, Deloitte Canada . “As nations around the world industrialize and strive to improve their standards of living, mining has come to take a more central role on the world stage. And for mining companies, this greater visibility comes with greater responsibility.”

“The mining sector is facing a perfect storm of converging global forces,” said Jürgen Beier, Deputy Mining Leader, Deloitte Canada. “Confronted with unrelenting cost inflation, unprecedented commodity price volatility, ever-tightening regulation and mounting labour shortages, mining executives must be willing to seek unconventional solutions.”

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Keystone’s delay hurts Ontario too – by Frank Dabbs, Special to QMI Agency (London Free Press – Novmeber 26, 2011)

London Free Press http://www.lfpress.com/

“What has changed, too, is the Canadian industry’s assumption
that environmental activism is just a nuisance with no major
political clout. … The issues that have ostensibly delayed
the pipeline are not the heart of the matter. Stopping $120
billion worth of oil-sands development over the next 25 years
is the object of the war.” (Frank Dobbs-London Free Press)

This month’s postponement of a decision on Trans Canada Corp.’s Keystone XL pipeline by U.S. President Barack Obama cynically removes a controversy from the 2012 presidential election agenda.

For Canada, including Ontario, it’s a game-changer that anti-oil sands activists are celebrating, but which has gob-smacked industry proponents.

What changed is the assurance of ready access to the U.S. crude-oil market. What has changed, too, is the Canadian industry’s assumption that environmental activism is just a nuisance with no major political clout.

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Will mines get [Michigan] state’s riches for a paltry sum? – by Tina Lam (Detroit Free Press – November 28, 2011)

Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/

Part 2 of 2

Critics — and even a key state agency — say the state isn’t getting enough in exchange for the wealth of minerals about to be extracted from the Upper Peninsula.

The state has no severance tax on minerals, as it does on oil, gas and iron mines. The tax is a way to repay Michigan citizens for the value of underground resources removed forever from the state. The state also doesn’t auction mineral leases, as it does for oil and gas.

And finally, the state is getting only paltry sums from its future mines in fees and bonds for permits, potential cleanup costs and oversight.

Financial loopholes in mining are costing the state, some say

When Kennecott Eagle Minerals applied for a permit for its new mine near Big Bay, it paid what state law requires for its application fee: $5,000.

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Rio Tinto hiring hundreds of workers in Canada because of modernization projects – by Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press (Winnipeg Free Press – September 27, 2011)

 

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

MONTREAL – A couple of years after it laid off 14,000 workers around the world, global mining giant Rio Tinto has launched a mini hiring spree in Canada, mainly due to its modernization projects.

The Anglo-Australian company is actively searching to hire more than 210 workers for mining and manufacturing in alumina, aluminum, iron ore, diamonds and titanium dioxide.

“We launched the campaign to help our ongoing recruitment efforts for our modernization and expansion projects,” Rio Tinto spokesman Bryan Tucker said in an email. Rio Tinto employs more than 13,000 people at 35 sites in Canada.

The company has turned to Facebook and YouTube, posting a four-minute promotional video showing operations such as the Diavik Diamond Mine, Iron Ore Company of Canada, Rio Tinto, Fer et Titane, and Rio Tinto Alcan.

 

Daniel Jaeb is an Underground Miner at Diavik Diamond Mine in the Northwest Territories. Local, northern and Aboriginal, he received training and certification in underground mining through the North’s Mine Training Society. He enjoys the many pastimes that come with living in Canada’s North.

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[Michigan mining] U.P. mines seeing a resurgence as companies hope to cash in – by Tina Lam (Detroit Free Press – Novmeber 27, 2011)

Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/

Part 1 of 2

BIG BAY — In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it’s drill, baby, drill. The drilling that began there in September is not for oil, but for gold, silver, copper and nickel. In a resurgence of mining in the region whose mineral heyday was more than a century ago, foreign companies are finding rich bodies of ore they hope to mine for billions of dollars.

New technology and higher prices for metals are making mining profitable again, spurred by increases in demand for high-tech gadgets such as smartphones, kitchens full of stainless steel appliances and hybrid cars — all of which use the metals that can be found in the U.P.

Three new mines are either under way or planned, with more possible. Also, an abandoned mill to process ore is expected to reopen. Mineral rights on more than 1 million of the U.P.’s 7 million acres have been leased by companies prospecting for metals.

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The Dark Lord of Coal Country – by Jeff Goodell (Rolling Stone Magazine – November 29, 2010)

http://www.rollingstone.com/

One balmy night this fall, a black BMW 750LI — a German luxury sedan that costs more than a typical coal miner makes in a year — pulls into the parking lot of the shaggy country club in Bluefield, West Virginia. Bluefield is a fading coal town in a state that is full of fading coal towns. Seventy-five years ago, when the Pocahontas coal seam was one of the richest veins in America, and tooling up for the 20th century required massive tonnage of coal, there was money here, and hope. But now the coal is mined out, the buildings downtown are vacant, and shiny new Beemers are about as common as flying saucers.

The driver — a young, tan, L.A.-surfer-boy type — jumps out and opens the rear door. A tall man, 60, with a thin mustache and a double chin emerges: Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy, the largest and most powerful coal company in central Appalachia. He grabs his dark-blue suit jacket, which is folded on the tan leather seat beside him, and slips it on. He wears a red-and-yellow silk tie and tasseled leather loafers. His hands are chubby and white — no calluses, not a speck of coal dust. Accountant’s hands. His eyes are black and inexpressive.

Unless you live in West Virginia, you’ve probably never heard of Don Blankenship. You might not know that he grew up in the coal fields of West Virginia, received an accounting degree from a local college, and, through a combination of luck, hard work and coldblooded ruthlessness, transformed himself into the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with the business and politics of energy in America today

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Author Ezra Levant on ‘ethical oil’ – by Trish Audette (Calgary Herald – November 27, 2011)

 

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

EDMONTON — In the days after the U.S. government made it clear expansion plans for the Keystone XL pipeline were on hold until at least 2013, energy experts, industry insiders, politicians and others wondered aloud where Canada’s international oilsands message had gone wrong.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, just weeks before a decision was delayed to better study environmental impacts, had called approval of Keystone XL a “no-brainer.” Canada’s message throughout the debates, studies and protests of the cross-border pipeline, designed to carry Alberta’s heavy oil across several states to Texas refineries, had been simple: Building Keystone XL would create thousands of American jobs and ensure a secure supply of oil from an “ethical” neighbour.

But amid a sea of hand-wringing and second-guessing, the conservative activist and author who first coined the term “ethical oil” stuck to his message. Writing a column for the Sun newspaper chain, the same media organization that televises his news show each day, Ezra Levant explained U.S. President Barack Obama had simply chosen “Saudi conflict oil” over friendly Canadian oil.

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Canada to argue ‘ethical’ oilsands at climate change talks – by Trish Audette (Calgary Herald – November 27, 2011)

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

EDMONTON — As world leaders gather in South Africa to discuss climate change this week and next, Canada’s environment minister says he plans to defend Alberta’s oilsands and is willing to argue they are an “ethical” and reliable energy source.

Heading into the 17th Conference of the Parties meeting, Environment Minister Peter Kent says he will not sign on to any deals that mandate some countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions while others don’t — as his government argues was the case under the Kyoto Protocol. He is also unequivocal in his defence of northern Alberta’s bitumen production, a position he expects will be supported by Alberta Environment Minister Diana McQueen when she joins him at the end of the week.

“We still need to — and the industry needs to and our provincial partners need to — be aggressive in ensuring international friends and neighbours and customers recognize Alberta’s heavy oil is no different from heavy oil produced in any number of other countries which don’t receive nearly the negative attention or criticism,” he says. “It is a legitimate resource.”

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