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China buying [Canada resources] while we talk – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – October 12, 2011)

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

Investments in oil patch raise many questions

While we sort out where we stand, Chinese money keeps buying up Canadian oil and gas reserves.

Sinopec’s $2.2-billion acquisition this week of shale gas producer Daylight Energy Ltd. is sure to be followed by more. Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.’ two major oil sands projects are in play because of put/call options with PetroChina that could increase the Chinese company’s ownership to 100% from 60%.

Birchcliff Energy Ltd., another unconventional gas producer, put itself on the block last week following unsolicited expressions of interest. Market speculation is bubbling about which company the Chinese will snap up next — from senior Talisman Energy Inc. to junior Celtic Exploration Ltd.

“In our view, [the Daylight Energy deal] is more than a simple one-time acquisition,” Stéfane Marion, chief economist and strategist at National Bank Financial Group, said in a note Tuesday. “It reflects the acceleration of a macro trend. If China is serious about letting its currency float in the next five years, there is no need for its government (and state owned enterprises) to own more than $3-trillion in foreign reserves. It makes more sense for China to start recycling its paper holdings into tangible assets.”

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Republic of Mining.com – Stan Sudol CBC Radio Thunder Bay Ring of Fire Interview (October 11, 2011)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011 CBC Radio – Thunder Bay   Superior Morning radio host Lisa Laco: “Stan Sudol has his own ideas about how to develop the Ring of Fire. Sudol authors the blog Republic of Mining:” http://www.cbc.ca/superiormorning/episodes/2011/10/11/the-ring-of-fire/ This interview was the result of my “Mining Marshall Plan for Northern Ontario”. Click here to read: Mining Marshall …

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[Sudbury Union] 6500 wins labour ruling – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 11, 2011)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.  cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

The Ontario Labour Relations Board has ruled that two Steelworkers pulled from a union committee investigating the June deaths of two Stobie miners be returned to work on the investigation.

United Steelworkers Local 6500 filed a complaint to the labour board after Vale Ltd. ordered two of five union committee members back to their jobs, charging the company was interfering in its investigation. It asked the Ministry of Labour to order the reinstatement of the members.

When it refused, the union went to the labour board, which made its ruling last week. The ministry is heading an investigation into the deaths of Jason Chenier, 35, and Jordan Fram, 26, on June 8. They were crushed by a run of broken rock and water while working in the No. 7 ore pass of the mine’s 3,000-foot level about 10:30 p.m.

Vale is conducting its own investigation into the deaths, as are Steelworkers and Greater Sudbury Police.

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Mining pioneer’s memoir reissued [Sudbury History] – by Paul Bennett (Halifax Chronicle Herald – October 9, 2011)

http://thechronicleherald.ca/

Paul W. Bennett is founding director, Schoolhouse Consulting, Halifax, and the author of Vanishing Schools, Threatened Communities: The Contested Schoolhouse in Maritime Canada, 1850-2010.

Dusty old memoirs rarely attract much attention, unless they celebrate the lives of famous figures or capture well the social experience of bygone days. Men and women living ordinary lives rarely write autobiographies and fewer still have the resources to get them published.

The rather obscure Cape Breton-born mining pioneer Aeneas (Angus) McCharles (1844-1906) was an exception to the normal pattern. His personal memoir, Bemocked of Destiny, published posthumously in 1908, achieved some notoriety for its homespun philosophy and has been re-published recently as a centenary project.

McCharles’s fascinating life caught the imagination of Martin McAllister, an amateur historian and former columnist for the Inco Triangle, the official newsletter of the International Nickel Company in Sudbury, Ont. While researching the mining pioneers of Sudbury District some years ago, he stumbled upon McCharles and his long out-of-print memoir.

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Gold industry awaits technology breakthrough – by Dewald van Rensburg (Miningmx.com – October 10, 2011)

 http://www.miningmx.com/

[miningmx.com] — THERE is great excitement about a promising new technology which could make deep underground mining possible and ensure the future of South Africa’s gold industry.

Deep underground mines are engineering miracles, but the limitations of the available technology have long been evident to South Africa’s gold industry.

The world’s deepest mine is AngloGold Ashanti’s Mponeng, which extends about 4km underground. To be able to mine much deeper than this, where millions of currently inaccessible – or uneconomic – fine ounces of gold lie, would require a breakthrough.

Significantly, AngloGold was recently the first group to herald such a breakthrough with an apparently large degree of certainty. Within three to five years the group wants to develop machines to replace mineworkers at the stope face.

This target not only involves machines that can do the work of humans at the “coalface”, but also means the end of mining methods in standard use for more than a century.

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Sinopec bids $2.2-billion for Alberta energy company – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – October 10, 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.

China’s new play for Canada’s oil and gas

CALGARY— Chinese energy giant Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration is testing the waters on a bold new energy strategy in Canada, as it moves to buy out an Alberta oil and gas company for $2.2-billion in cash.

Sinopec’s bid for Daylight Energy Ltd., whose large portfolio of Alberta and British Columbia land contains potentially significant quantities of natural gas, comes amid a new push by Asian firms to lock up Canadian energy that could soon be loaded onto tankers and shipped across the Pacific.

But the Daylight deal marks a departure from previous Chinese acquisitions, which have been carried out with a deliberately soft touch, fashioned to avoid a nationalistic backlash by buying only small portions of other companies, or scooping up troubled firms.

Now, however, Sinopec is cementing a new trend that has seen Asian entities seek greater control in their North American investments. In buying Daylight, Sinopec is assuming a newly confident stance in Canada, where it has operated since 2005.

“This is breaking new ground,” said Wenran Jiang, an expert on Asian energy investments in Canada who holds a research chair at the University of Alberta’s China Institute.

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There will be litigation [Keystone XL Pipeline] by Sheldon Alberts (National Post – October 8, 2011)

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

Her voice faltered and her speaking notes wobbled in trembling hands, but Susan Luebbe kept her nerves in check long enough Friday to tell the Obama administration exactly what she thought about Calgary-based TransCanada Corp.’s plan to build the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across her land.

“It is an all-out war to battle TransCanada and keep them off our property,” said Ms. Luebbe, whose family raises black Angus cattle on a 1,200-acre ranch in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. “It is not in the national best interest for anyone except the money hungry, greedy corporation of TransCanada.”

Ms. Luebbe’s statement – at once angry and determined – was typical of the emotionfilled testimony U.S. State Department officials heard on both sides of the Keystone XL issue during a raucous public hearing into the $7-billion project.

Several hundred people – from labour union supporters to anti-oil environmentalists and alienated landowners – crowded into a basement auditorium of the Ronald Reagan Building to make a final plea for approval or rejection of the 2,700 kilometre pipeline.

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Europe out to lunch [Oil Sands] – by Claudia Cattaneo – (National Post – October 8, 2011)

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

When French peasants were starving because of widespread bread shortages during the reign of Louis XVI, his extravagant wife, Marie-Antoinette, is said to have proposed: “Let them eat cake.”

The same arrogance was on display in Europe this week, when amid desperate protests, climbing unemployment and draconian austerity measures to fix crippling state debt, the European Union pushed forward two policies marshalled by the environmental elites: a costly plan forcing airlines flying into Europe to buy credits and reduce emissions, and a plan to discriminate against oil from Canada’s oil sands as part of a new fuels quality directive it can hardly afford.

While the aviation scheme affects a multitude of countries, discrimination against the oil sands is a shot at Canada alone. It comes only a year after another patronizing EU move, a ban on seal products, that was vigorously protested by Canadians.

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Kitimat, B.C.: Ground zero in the race to fuel Asia – by David Ebner and Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – October 8, 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.

KITIMAT, B.C., CALGARY – Two kilometres beyond an old logging road, workers are building the foundation of the future of Canada’s ailing natural gas business.

Since the summer, crews have blasted the hard rock at Bish Cove on the Douglas Channel, the deepest and widest fjord on the rugged north coast of British Columbia. More than 40,000 cubic metres have already been excavated to reform the land, in preparation for a $5-billion-plus project that would for the first time ship Canadian natural gas to buyers in Asia.

The earth-churning work at Bish Cove is a demarcation point in the history of the Canadian energy business. For the country’s natural gas producers, a door to Asia is a desperately needed lifeline. The industry has been battered by the emergence of abundant shale gas in the United States. Prices and profits have collapsed, and shipments to the U.S., Canada’s only export customer, have been halved. Without an export route to Asia, there is a risk that the major discoveries of shale gas in British Columbia, as well as reserves in Alberta, will be left in the ground.

There is urgency: Serious competition looms on the other side of the world in Australia, where there are some $200-billion of plans to build numerous plants that would triple exports to the same customers Canada is courting. But Canada has an advantage.

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Broken promises and impotent government hurt Hamilton [Steel Industry] – by Tim Harper (Toronto Star – October 10, 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 grim anniversary passed unmarked last week in a once-proud steel town. It was one year ago that Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel began its shutdown of the blast furnace at the former Stelco in Hamilton, a precursor to its lockout of 900 workers a month later.

One year later, the workers remain on the street and the 2007 U.S. Steel purchase of Stelco remains the neon sign advertising the inadequacies of a toothless and secretive Investment Canada Act.

U.S. Steel is now threatening a permanent shutdown at its Hamilton Works and the federal government, which allowed the takeover, is powerless to do anything about it.

The two sides return to the bargaining table Monday morning, but there appears to have been little movement from either the American company or Local 1005 of the United Steelworkers.

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In standoff with Ivanhoe Mines, Mongolia blinks – Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – October 7, 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.

VANCOUVER — Mongolia is backing off plans to grab a larger stake of the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project following warnings from its majority owner, Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., that such a move would create mistrust among future international investors.

Statements from government officials put an end to weeks of speculation that the country might seek to prematurely boost its stake in the project.

Investor worry spurred a sharp selloff of shares of Ivanhoe Mines, the project’s 66 per cent owner, as well as Rio Tinto PLC, which owns 49 per cent of the Canadian company.

Oyu Tolgoi is key to economic growth in the country, the officials said, warning of the economic consequences of revising the existing deal that gives the country a 34-per-cent stake in the project. It has the option to increase that ownership to 50 per cent in 30 years.

The Mongolian government and Ivanhoe Mines, alongside its project partner Rio, later put out a joint statement confirming their support for the existing deal signed in 2009.

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Judges rule against Vale application – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 8, 2011)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

Three Toronto judges denied an application Friday by Vale Ltd. for a judicial review of an Ontario Labour Relations Board decision on how evidence is being presented at a bad-faith bargaining complaint by United Steelworkers against the company.

Vale asked divisional court of the Superior Court of Justice to scrap eight days of hearings already held into the complaint and start over again with a new panel from the labour board, says USW lawyer Brian Shell.

The complaint was filed Jan. 13, 2010, at the halfway mark of a bitter year-long strike against Vale. It began as an attempt to force Vale back to the negotiating table when contract talks were stalemated.

That complaint has turned into a fight to have an arbitrator appointed to rule on the dismissals of eight Steelworkers, whom Vale said were fired for unacceptable behaviour on picket lines and in the community during the labour dispute.

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NEWS RELEASE: NAN WILL CONTINUE TO STRIVE FOR A POSITIVE WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

For the web’s largest database of articles on the Ring of Fire mining camp, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Friday October 7, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THUNDER BAY, ON: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Stan Beardy congratulates Premier Dalton McGuinty and will continue to strive for a positive working relationship with the returning official government of Ontario and bring forward the issues affecting the people of Nishnawbe Aski.

“NAN is mandated to work with all political parties and all levels and therefore we will continue to push for meaningful dialogue with the elected officials of Ontario,” said NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy.

Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals managed to secure a third straight mandate, but fell just shy of a third straight majority. The Liberals had won 53 ridings, one short of the 54 needed for a majority. The Liberals had captured 37.6 per cent of the popular vote, with the Progressive Conservatives close behind at 35.4 per cent. NDP support was at 22.7 per cent.

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Minority may mean Northern [Ontario] voice will be heard – by Ryan Lux (Timmins Daily Press – October 8, 2011)

 The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

A minority Parliament might just be what it takes for the North to be heard in Queen’s Park, said Timmins Mayor Tom Laughren following Thursday’s provincial election which saw the Liberals win government for a third time.

“In a perfect world I would love to see the three parties roll up their sleeves and work together on the issues facing the North,” Laughren said. “That’s why people elect minority Parliaments, not because we want another election in 18 months time.”

While Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals were short only one seat from achieving an historic third-consecutive majority, Laughren is pinning his hopes that on issues facing the North, that the deciding vote incorporates a Northern voice.

“In many cases, Northern leaders have been going to all kinds of different sessions related to mining, endangered species and land use, and talking about the challenges and in many instances it does not appear that we’re being listened to,” Laughren told The Daily Press.

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Court dismisses Inco [Port Colborne] lawsuit – by Christine Dobby (National Post – October 8, 2011)

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

The Ontario Court of Appeal has dismissed an environmental class-action lawsuit and reversed an award of $36-million to a group of Port Colborne residents who claim their property values took a hit because of emissions from a nearby Inco Ltd. refinery.

In a decision released Friday, a three-member panel of the court unanimously ruled that the plaintiffs did not prove that Inco was liable to them. Even if they had succeeded on that front, the court said, the plaintiffs failed to show any actual loss to Port Colborne’s property appreciation rates.

On top of throwing out the claims, the court ordered the plaintiffs to pay $100,000 in costs to Inco.

In one of the first class-action lawsuits to go to trial, Judge Joseph Henderson of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on July 6, 2010, ordered Inco to pay three subgroups of plaintiffs a total of $36-million in damages.

Now owned by Vale Canada Ltd., Inco operated a nickel refinery in the small town on the north shore of Lake Erie from 1918 to 1984.

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