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ECOJUSTICE/WILDLANDS LEAGUE NEWS RELEASE: Take time now to assess impacts of mega-mines in Northern Ontario, environmentalists tell federal and Ontario governments

Ecojustice is a national charitable organization dedicated to defending Canadians’ right to a healthy environment.

Wildlands League mission is to combine credible science, visionary solutions and bold communication to save, protect and enhance Ontario’s wilderness areas.

Nov 07, 2011

TORONTO – Today Ecojustice and CPAWS Wildlands League are calling on Federal Environment Minister Peter Kent and Ontario’s Minister of the Environment Jim Bradley to appoint an independent joint review panel to assess a proposed mega-mine for chromite in northern Ontario by the American-based Cliffs Resources Company.

The public interest groups are supporting the demand earlier this month by Matawa and Mushkegowuk First Nations that the federal Minister conduct a review panel.

The Cliffs project is the first proposed mine in this vast, intact area. The environmental groups are concerned that mining will cause massive permanent changes to sensitive ecosystems and local communities in Ontario’s Far North.

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For the Oppenheimers, diamonds are not forever – by Marius Bosch (Reuters.com – November 4, 2011)

http://www.reuters.com/

Substantial part of proceeds earmarked for Africa

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 4 (Reuters) – For over 80 years, South Africa’s Oppenheimer family held sway over the global diamond trade, an era which came to an end of Friday with Anglo American’s buyout offer for De Beers.

The $5.1 billion the family will get for its 40 percent stake in the diamond giant could see a large chunk ploughed back into Africa for private equity investment or philantropic work in the world’s poorest continent.

The Oppenheimers have been involved at De Beers since 1927, when Ernst Oppenheimer, who founded Anglo American a decade earlier, took control of the group. The family’s fortune has been intertwined with South Africa’s history and economy ever since.

“At the end of the day this has been a very momentous decision for the family. We didn’t approach Anglo, Anglo approached us,” said James Teeger, managing director of family holding company E. Oppenheimer & Son.

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NEWS RELEASE: Diavik [diamond mine] begins wind farm construction

03 November 2011

After several years of studying renewable energy resources, Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., operator of the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada’s Northwest Territories, is pleased to announce the start of construction of a wind farm at our mine site.

With investment from our joint venture partners, Rio Tinto and Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, approved earlier this year, and much planning completed, we have now advanced the Diavik wind farm to initial construction. Four 2.3 megawatt turbines will be constructed providing a capacity of 9.2 megawatts.

Diavik currently, relies on diesel fuel for all our energy needs. The wind farm will reduce our diesel use by approximately four million litres, about ten per cent of our total diesel consumption. Greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by approximately 12,000 tonnes, or six per cent of total emissions. By diversifying our energy mix at our mine we will offset some of the risks associated with reliance on diesel.

“The benefits of the initiative are numerous and will be realized for many years to come. 

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New Prosperity plan is environmentally sound – by Russell Hallbauer, President and CEO, Taseko Mines (Northern Miner – November 04, 2011)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

I read the editorial submission of Chief Marilyn Baptiste, of the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG), on The Northern Miner’s website on Nov. 2.  It purported to list eight reasons why Taseko Mines’s resubmitted application to the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) for the New Prosperity gold-copper project in B.C. will fail.

Ms. Baptiste’s latest comments are consistent with her wholesale rejection of any constructive dialogue around New Prosperity, which nevertheless holds tremendous value regionally, provincially and nationally.

The sentiments expressed in Ms. Baptiste’s editorial do not represent the views of the vast majority of people in Williams Lake and Cariboo communities.

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Eight reasons why Taseko’s New Prosperity will fail – by Chief Marilyn Baptiste (Northern Miner – November 2, 2011)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry.

Marilyn Baptiste is the elected chief of the Xeni Gwet’in band of the Tsilhqot’in First Nation, whose territory largely lies to the west of the Fraser River and Williams Lake, B.C., where Taseko Mines’ New Prosperity copper-gold project is located. See www.xeni.ca for more.

Investors hoping to cash in on Taseko Mines’ second bid to develop the Prosperity copper-gold mine (“New Prosperity”) should think back a year. At that time, despite assurances from the company and its president that the original Prosperity mine proposal would be accepted, it was soundly rejected by the federal government and the company’s share price plunged.

With New Prosperity, once again there is a proposal before the federal government’s Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the company’s president is saying he is confident it will be approved. And once again the federal government will have no choice but to reject it.

Here are eight reasons why the New Prosperity bid will fail:

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Igniting the [Ontario] Ring of Fire – by Harold Wilson (Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce President – July, 2011)

The progress towards development of the chromite deposit, now well established as “The Ring of Fire” north of Marten Falls, has been one of intense debate, considerable study, and much hope.  I attended a conference two weeks ago that was to focus on how this regional opportunity could be moved along, particularly the considerable infrastructure required. 

There were many excellent panels and presenters, the highlight for many being Thursday morning’s panel featuring William Boor of Cliffs Natural Resources, Paul Semple representing Noront Resources and our 2010 Chamber AGM speaker, Frank Smeenk from KWG Resources. 

All three panelists presented compelling rationales for their top choice of a transportation corridor.  While some attendees thought the three scenarios indicated discord, they were actually stating their preferred case but were prepared to accept one solution, provided it would be cost effective and expedited.  The main issue was for the Province to help “get on with it”. 

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[Kinross Gold] Good times in the gulag – by Paul Christopher Webster (Globe and Mail – Report on Business Magazine – April, 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.

Vladimir Putin, Tye Burt and Kinross’s Gold Rush in Siberia

Looking like a luxury liner that took a wrong turn somewhere in the Pacific, the living quarters at the Kupol mine stand in surreal contrast to the surrounding moonscape of snow, ice and searing wind. Built largely in Alberta and trucked here to northeastern Russia from a port on the Arctic Ocean, the facility, which is operated by Toronto-based Kinross Gold Corp., boasts a huge gym, exercise rooms, high-speed Internet, extensive entertainment facilities and two spacious restaurants serving nearly 30 tonnes a month of remarkably palatable food.

Workers, who are flown in for four- to six-week stints from the city of Magadan, 1,200 kilometres to the south, peg their shift schedules to Sunday shashlik dinners. “I’ve never seen anything like this anywhere,” says Anatoly Orlinsky, a veteran of Russian resource development who runs Kupol’s power plant. “If this is the future for mining in my country,” he says with conviction, “it gives me hope.”

Here on Russia’s remote northeastern frontier, Kinross has secured its own private El Dorado just as gold prices head for the stratosphere. After 15 years of battling investor doubts about Russia, startling logistical improbabilities and sinister patches of resistance in a region first developed by prisoners of the Soviet gulags, Kinross has captured a prized part of Canada’s Cold War peace dividend.

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A global business perspective on managing for growth in a volatile international environment – by Rio Tinto Chairman – Jan du Plessis (November 4, 2011)

Location: Australian Institute of Company Directors – Sydney, Australia

Jan du Plessis – Rio Tinto Chairman

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It is a real pleasure to be with you today. 

I’d like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land we have gathered on today, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I pay my respects to elders past and present.

I first visited Sydney in November 1991 and, over the course of several subsequent visits, fell in love with the place.  Twenty years later, having travelled around the world more than I care to remember, I still believe this is the most beautiful city in the world. 

Now, before anybody says Sydney is not Australia, let me assure you that over the last two-and-a-half years since becoming Chairman of Rio Tinto, I have seen quite a lot of your country.  And my visits have not been confined to stopping over in most of your major cities.  I have visited several coal mines and (I confess) vineyards in the Hunter Valley;  more coal mines in Queensland; and paid visits to our alumina refineries, aluminium smelters and other facilities in and around Gladstone. 

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Warming Revives Dream of Sea Route in Russian Arctic [Mining Transportation] – by Andrew E. Kramer (New York Times – October 17, 2011)

The New York Times has the third highest weekday circulation in the United States (after USA Today and the Wall Street Journal) and is one of the country’s most influential newspapers.

ARKHANGELSK, Russia — Rounding the northernmost tip of Russia in his oceangoing tugboat this summer, Capt. Vladimir V. Bozanov saw plenty of walruses, some pods of beluga whales and in the distance a few icebergs.

One thing Captain Bozanov did not encounter while towing an industrial barge 2,300 miles across the Arctic Ocean was solid ice blocking his path anywhere along the route. Ten years ago, he said, an ice-free passage, even at the peak of summer, was exceptionally rare.

But environmental scientists say there is now no doubt that global warming is shrinking the Arctic ice pack, opening new sea lanes and making the few previously navigable routes near shore accessible more months of the year. And whatever the grim environmental repercussions of greenhouse gas, companies in Russia and other countries around the Arctic Ocean are mining that dark cloud’s silver lining by finding new opportunities for commerce and trade.

Oil companies might be the most likely beneficiaries, as the receding polar ice cap opens more of the sea floor to exploration. The oil giant Exxon Mobil recently signed a sweeping deal to drill in the Russian sector of the Arctic Ocean. But shipping, mining and fishing ventures are also looking farther north than ever before.

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[Energy] Democratic jackpot – by Lawrence Solomon (National Post – November 5, 2011)

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

The energy-short ­democracies will become top producers

The energy-short democracies — the United States, most European Union nations, Japan and Israel — are today mostly on the defensive, while energy-rich countries run by strong men — Russia, various Middle Eastern states, and Venezuela — are flexing their muscles.

Within a decade, this energy order could flip. Many of the Western democracies are likely to become major oil and gas producers, helping to glut the world and collapse energy prices. And today’s energy-rich countries, most having undiversified economies, will then lose the lion’s share of their revenues and become neutered politically.

The game-changer is “unconventional fossil fuels,” much of it trapped in shale — rock that often contains oil or gas. In the case of gas, the U.S. is developing so much, so fast in so many places that the domestic price for natural gas has more than halved.

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[Sudbury, Canada] City in economic sweet spot – by Star Staff (Sudbury Star – November 5, 2011)

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

Sudbury is still an “economic sweet spot” when it comes to job creation, but faces the prospect of labour shortages, a Laurentian University economist says.

David Robinson made the comments in an analysis of October’s employment numbers released Friday by Statistics Canada. They showed the unemployment rate in the city dropped to 6.3% last month, compared to the national unemployment rate of 7.3%. Ontario’s jobless rate was 7.6% in October.

“We said last month that Sudbury was in the economic sweet spot for Canada’s economy,” Robinson wrote in his analysis, posted Friday on the Institute of Northern Ontario Research and Development website. “It remains true. Ontario’s economy is stalled but employment in Sudbury rose 1.1%, which is just slightly less than the 1.3% increase reported last month. Employment rose by 900 on a base of 83,800.

“If this rate of increase continues for 12 months, it would represent an annual growth rate for employment of 14%. A 14% growth rate would add 11,746 jobs in one year.”

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Anglo American shakes up diamond industry with De Beers takeover – by Peter Koven (National Post – November 5, 2011)

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

Anglo American PLC is poised to be the new leader in the diamond-mining industry after striking a landmark deal that promises to transform the business.

On Friday, Anglo American unveiled an agreement to buy 40% of De Beers, giving it majority control of the company that not only dominates the modern diamond industry, but largely created it.

Since its early years in the 1870s, Johannesburg-based De Beers has been the global leader in diamond mining — it had a market share of more than 80% through the 20th century as it controlled production out of Southern Africa. It still has about 40% of the market today.

De Beers’ influence has been just as strong on the marketing side, in which it helped create huge consumer demand for diamonds by linking them with love and marriage. The phrase “A diamond is forever” is one of its iconic slogans.

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[Canada] The energy superpower that isn’t – by Terence Corcoran (National Post – November 5, 2011)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. Terence Corcoran is the editor and columnist for the Financial Post section of the National Post.

Canada hardly rates a mention in Daniel Yergin’s new book

When a “global energy superpower” starts delivering tough talk to its potential customers, that superpower had better be sure that people will listen. It has also better be sure it is in fact a superpower; otherwise, it may find itself talking tough to the wind.

In recent weeks, Canada — a self-proclaimed global energy superpower — has been trying to throw its weight around over the Keystone XL pipeline, TransCanada Corp.’s $7-billion project to ship oil sands production from Alberta to Texas. In Houston on Tuesday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver let the Americans know that Canada had other options. “What will happen if there wasn’t approval [of Keystone] — and we think there will be — is that we’ll simply have to intensify our efforts to sell the oil elsewhere.”

Canadian oil executives, who have a lot invested in the superpower notion, are also issuing aggressive-sounding statements aimed at the United States. A headline in The Globe and Mail Friday sounded like a threat: “Oil patch to U.S.: OK pipe or lose our oil.” The story didn’t quite back up the headline, but the sense was that Canada was developing alternatives and that China is the big alternative.

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Instead of pipelines, build refineries here – by Susan McArthur (National Post – November 5, 2011)

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

Susan McArthur is a senior investment banker at Jacob Securities Inc.

$100-billion ­investment needed over 20 years

The continuing controversy in the U.S. surrounding TransCanada’s proposed Keystone pipeline may just be the best thing that ever happened to Canada. Perhaps it will force us to finally just say no to being hewers of wood and drawers of water. While Keystone’s success is important, it’s time Canada comes of age and starts to transform more of its resources into value-added products at home.

When it comes to our oil resources, this is no small undertaking. The price tag to build the infrastructure and refining complex scaled for our vast oil reserves could be as much as $100-billion and could take 20 years.

We have the resources, the natural proximity to ports, rail infrastructure and voracious customers south of the border and within 36 hours of our export terminals. All it takes is vision, capital, know-how, tenacity and chutzpah. And a big bold plan.

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Canadian pipeline hits 11th hour opposition – by Bruce Campion-Smith (Toronto Star – November 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

OTTAWA—A last stand or a lost cause. Nebraska residents and their politicians are mounting an 11th hour stand against the Keystone XL pipeline, offended by the proposal to build it straight through a sensitive aquifer.

Racing against the clock, the state legislature will debate a motion in a bid to give Nebraska lawmakers the power to control the routing of the controversial pipeline. Its supporters are hoping to get it passed before the U.S. State Department issues its own ruling — promised by year’s end — whether the pipeline can be built.

“We feel that if we have a . . . law in place before the presidential permit is granted across the Canadian-U.S. border we’re on sound constitutional ground,” Nebraska state Senator Ken Haar said in an interview.

“We’ve been late getting this done but we still need to get it done.”

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