Republic of Mining

From coal to gas [Ring of Fire and Other Mining Implications] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (November 24, 2010)

March 15, 2011February 21, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on November 24, 2010.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

AS ONTARIO continues its onerous but ultimately necessary march toward cleaner air it is stepping into increasingly difficult territory. Its so-called green energy proposals are proving costlier all the time, and while no one should expect to reduce greenhouse gases and begin to reverse climate change without complications, Ontario seems to be making things more difficult for itself than it needs to.

This realization can be seen in every retreat from and change in its green energy policy, most recently to offer rebates on soaring electricity bills and alter an ill-thought-out time-of-use pricing plan.

Consumers are enraged at the proliferation of charges over and above basic electricity while lucrative contracts signed with alternative energy suppliers seem unnecessarily rich, given the fact that demand for electricity is going nowhere but up.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resourses (MNR) – it’s time to talk – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial – (August 6, 2009)

March 15, 2011February 21, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on August 6, 2009.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

IT’S time that Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield sat down with Nishnawbe Aski Nation leaders and come to some sort of an agreement on the Far North Act. NAN’s Grand Chief Stan Beardy has blasted the provincial government over a perceived lack of consultation regarding Bill 191, which will set aside 225,000 square kilometres as a protected area within NAN First Nation homelands.

“Without (NAN’s) consultation, accommodation or consent,” Beardy stated, the legislation will effectively lock down the land to prevent First Nations – among the poorest people in Canada – from achieving economic independence by preventing the development needed to build healthy communities and help strengthen the Ontario economy.

While the government has launched committee meetings on the legislation, NAN says there are no hearings set for communities in the far North portion of the province, the ones most affected by the legislation.

The closest the Standing Committee on General Government gets to the far North is at the Sioux Lookout and Thunder Bay hearings.

Thunder Bay a link to ‘Heartlandia’ – by Livio Di Matteo (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal)

March 15, 2011February 21, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This column was originally published on June 01, 2009.

Economics Matters

For much of its economic history, Thunder Bay’s lake head role made it a transshipment point and transportation node that enabled it to reap the benefits of east-west economic flows – in particular, the grain trade. Thunder Bay’s role as the gateway to the west is about to get an important boost given the continued economic growth in western Canada and particularly the central interior North American economic region of Heartlandia.

Heartlandia – comprising Northwestern Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North and South Dakota and Minnesota – is a region at the cross roads of the North American continent and indeed the world.

Heartlandia covers 2.4 million square kilometres with a population of nearly 9 million people and a GDP of about US$405 billion. This economic region contains agricultural production activities, food processing, forestry, petroleum, potash, uranium, coal, mineral and hydroelectric resources as well as substantial manufacturing, research and service capacity.

2011 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame – Innovation and Wealth Creation – by Stan Sudol

March 11, 2011February 21, 2011

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame was conceived by the late Maurice R. Brown, former editor and publisher of The Northern Miner, as a way to recognize and honour the legendary mine finders and builders of a great Canadian industry. The Hall was established in 1988. For more information about the extraordinary individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, please go to their home website: http://mininghalloffame.ca/

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

2011 Canadian Mining Hall of Fame – Innovation and Wealth Creation

Like the commodity supercycle, he was back again to the delight of a “star-studded” mining crowd at the 23rd Mining Hall of Fame’s annual dinner and induction ceremony at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, held recently in Toronto. I am referring to that perennial funny man, Pierre Lassande, Chairman of Franco-Nevada Corporation, who kept the 800-plus guests in stitches with his master of ceremonies commentary.

“I don’t want you to think of yourself as an audience,” Mr. Lassande began. “Think of yourselves as trapped Chilean miners! I promise we’ll get you out of here by Easter.”

He was joined at the head table by some of the top CEOs of Canada’s mining sector including, Don Lindsay of Teck Resources, Aaron Regent of Barrick Gold, Tye Burt of Kinross Gold, Pamela Strand of Shear Mineral and Michael White of IBK Capital Corp., just to mention a few.

Mr. Lassonde continued about the top mining story of the year, if not decade, “For three months they captured a worldwide audience who learned more about mining than we could ever teach them in their life time. … One of them got into a bit of a pickle when both his wife and his mistress showed up on top. He was the only one who was glad to be half a mile underground!”

Quadra FNX is Focused on Copper – by Stan Sudol

March 11, 2011February 21, 2011

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant, who writes extensively about mining issues.(stan.sudol@republicofmining.com)

Michael Winship is a familiar name in Northern Ontario’s hard-rock fraternity

“It’s all about copper at Quadra FNX,” chief operating officer Michael Winship told a packed audience at a lunch presentation hosted by the CIM Toronto branch January 20th.

The red metal, a key indicator of global economic strength, has soared over the past few months from a low of US$2.85/pound in July 2010 to around US$4.35 in January. (It hit an all time low of about US$1.25 in December 2008 during the last recession.)

Winship provided an overview of future investments that the newly merged company will be making in the next few years to take advantage of the booming demand for copper.

In March of 2010, Vancouver-based Quadra Mining Ltd. and Sudbury-based FNX Mining Company Inc. announced a friendly merger that combined Quadra’s open pit and metallurgical expertise and FNX’s underground mining and exploration prowess.

Quadra FNX operates three open pit copper mines in Nevada, Arizona and northern Chile, while its three underground mines, Podelsky, Levack and McCreedy West, are located in the northern range of the Sudbury Basin.

Power costs must be addressed for Northern Ontario industries – by Brian MacLeod

February 18, 2011

Brian MacLeod is the managing editor for the Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. This column was published on February 10, 2011. bmacleod@thesudburystar.com

Duguid’s response to what could be an enormous long-term economic
boost for Northern Ontario is lukewarm by comparison.
(Brian MacLeod – Feb/18/2011)

The Ontario government had better not fiddle when it comes to dealing with Cliffs Natural Resources’ attempts to develop the Ring of Fire chromite deposit in Northern Ontario.

An opportunity lost now would resonate for decades.

The 5,100-square-kilometre tract of land, centred about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, is thought to contain one of the world’s largest deposits of chromite — a key ingredient in the production of stainless steel.

The economic potential is staggering, but there are major roadblocks that could diminish those benefits. As many as 500 people could be employed at the mine, up to 300 people in transportation and up to 500 jobs could be created at a chromite processing plant.

For the North from the North [Leo Bernier – Emperor of the North] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (June 29, 2010)

March 15, 2011February 17, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was published on June 29, 2010.

LEO Bernier was a big man from a little town who emerged as the first home-grown northern politician to genuinely matter in Ontario government. A senior cabinet minister in the sturdy Tory government of Bill Davis, Bernier saw to it that Northern Ontario finally got noticed in provincial affairs. It is his lasting legacy and one that successive governments have maintained, if not always honoured in full.

First elected in 1966 to represent Kenora under John Robarts, he worked to equalize northern services and opportunities with southern standards, but never thought that he had to move south to accomplish it. Born in Sioux Lookout and raised largely in Ear Falls, he settled into Hudson, a town of 600 where the family business became its mainstay. It was there that he continued to live until his death Monday at 81.

Fittingly, Bernier entered politics after a succession of frustrating trips to Queen’s Park lobbying on behalf of his home town. “I always came back from Toronto downhearted,” he told The Chronicle-Journal for a look back at his career in 1999. “I saw the lack of concern and the lack of sympathy for the North.”

Natural resources still hold potential – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (December 20, 2010)

March 15, 2011February 17, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was published on February 6, 2011.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

EVEN as Thunder Bay and other Northwestern Ontario communities press ahead with knowledge-based industry initiatives there remain opportunities in traditional natural resources industries, but not all of them. Embracing high-tech knowledge business is essential to securing the future of northern communities.

Thunder Bay in particular is growing spectacularly in its health care research sector. Just as in other regional communities, with a number of its forest industries idled, new pursuits are essential to maintaining and growing the local economy.

A new study by the Conference Board of Canada confirms that the natural resources sector — and the industries that support it — provide the strongest potential for Northern Canada’s future economic development.

This report, Mapping the Economic Potential of Canada’s North, is one of a series of studies for the Centre for the North.

Time for North [Ontario] to take control – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 6, 2011)

March 15, 2011February 17, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was published on February 6, 2011.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

Provincial energy policy has punished the North with electricity prices that haven’t been able to match competing jurisdictions nearby. And yet, the North produces all of the electricity that it needs at a real price that is far lower than that which is being charged its industrial, business and residential users. (Thunder Bay Chronicle Editorial – Feb/06/2011)

THE TIME has never been better for Northern Ontario to take control of its own destiny. Discontent with provincial policy has rarely been stronger in the North which has been given a strong new hand to play in the form of major mining opportunities.

This region has shipped its resource riches and the bulk of their profits to southern Ontario and beyond for many decades, even as they provided the province with a major part of its revenue. One provincial government after another promised to facilitate value-added manufacturing of forest products but the logs and lumber, as well as much raw mine product, left here. Paper mills that did thrive are now mostly closed due in large part to provincial energy policy that helped to render them uncompetitive.

A slow provincial reallocation of forest resources is beginning to show some results, but the woods industry will never be what it was. The Northern Growth Plan remains to be written but from what is known about it so far, we should not expect a breakthrough in innovative thinking at Queen’s Park.

Get the price of power down [Ring of Fire smelter] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (February 8, 2011)

March 15, 2011February 17, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was published on February 8, 2011.

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

THE MESSAGE could not be clearer, the opportunity greater nor the time shorter for the Thunder Bay area. Cliffs Natural Resources, the major player in the giant Ring of Fire chromite deposit far north of here, has all but told the provincial government that it will build an electric arc furnace to process an estimated 70 million tonnes of ore in Northern Ontario if it can afford the electricity.

“At current provincial power rates, there isn’t a location in Ontario that is economically viable for Cliffs to build the ferrochrome production facility,” the company’s ferroalloys president Bill Boor said last week.

The ferrochrome furnaces would need 300 megawatts of power and “only a few” places in Northern Ontario meet these requirements, however, Sudbury is representative of a “technically feasible site,” he added. That is, it has the power supply, mining history and allied business.

“Representative of a feasible site” is pretty open-ended, and encouraging for alternate sites.

Chromium: Are Chinese Off-Takes About to Take Off? – by Jack Lifton (May 11, 2006)

February 16, 2011

This article was posted on www.ResourceInvestor.com, a free service for the global community of individual and institutional investors, financial and mining professionals, and other stakeholders who can use the website for important research on natural resources investment strategy, on May 11, 2006.

Jack Lifton is the Co-founder and Director of Technology Metals Research since June 2010. Mr. Lifton is also an Independent consultant, focusing on the sourcing of nonferrous strategic metals. His work includes exploration and mining, and the recovery of metal values by the recycling of not only metals and their alloys but also of metal-based chemicals used as raw materials for component manufacturing. Jack Lifton’s Blog: http://www.techmetalsresearch.com/

Chromium is necessary for the production of stainless steels, heat resisting steels and
superalloys in that order, descending, of use in the world. Chromium has no substitute
in stainless steel or in superalloys. Jack Lifton, May 2006)

DETROIT (ResourceInvestor.com) — The Peoples Republic of China does not have the same economic system as the United States, although you would never know that by reading the American mainstream press.

The Chinese government, officially in the socialist phase of the path to true communism, practices what has become known as command and control economics. The current Chinese version of that system allows for (free) market economics to be practiced, to a degree, in the civilian products (consumer products we call it here in America) sector.

The command and control sector of the Chinese government has always been in charge of domestic natural resources production and of the sourcing of strategic raw materials by importation. The control mechanism is simplicity itself. You cannot export a natural resource from China nor import one without a national-government-issued license to do so. A further license is needed to receive foreign currency, and you must account for every bit of it, or to “buy” foreign currency from the (State controlled, even if not in some cases any longer directly owned) commercial bank to pay for your imported goods.

There is one more seemingly innocuous requirement: The transaction involving natural resources or strategic materials must be in the best interests of the Chinese people.

Toronto Stock Exchange is an international leader in the mining world

February 16, 2011

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.

While discussions on the proposed merger of the Toronto Stock Exchange with the London Stock Exchange continue, perhaps it is time to simply note the accomplishments of the TSX and its role as the leader in global mining sector capital markets. Economic and political merits and demerits of the planned transaction will be discussed in many quarters. Without weighing in on either side of the issue, let’s take a closer look at the TSX.

Today, the TSX and its venture exchange combine forces to be world leaders in mine financing. In the period from 1999 to 2009, the TSX and venture exchange (TSX-V) handled 80% of mine financings in the world and 36% of total equity capital raised globally in the mining sector. In 2009 alone, they accounted for 84% of world mine financings and 34% of total equity raised.

According to materials from the TSX website, as of December 31, 2010, 1,531 mining companies are listed in Toronto – more than any other stock exchange. In 2010, there were more new mining listings – 208 – in Toronto that on any other exchange. More than 200 industry market analysts cover TSX mining companies.

Prosperity is Created, not Inherited – Ontario Mineral Industry Cluster: A Case in Point (2007)

February 15, 2011

Published in the Ontario Mineral Exploration Review by the Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in 2007. www.omicc.ca

National, provincial and regional governments are continually searching for new tools to improve the economic prosperity of their citizens. Prosperity is a widely used term in government documents, reports and position papers. Evidence from both the developed and developing world is that economic prosperity is created, not inherited.

For example, some countries and regions rich in natural resources remain poor, whereas other countries and regions with little in the way of a natural endowment have and continue to enjoy a higher standard of living. Inherited comparative advantages such as natural resources, geographic location, or a supply of labour are becoming less important in achieving prosperity.

According Harvard professor Michael Porter, renowned for his pioneering work on competitiveness and cluster theory, “A nation can be prosperous and productive in virtually any field. What matters is how a nation competes, not what industry it competes in…we must stop thinking that traditional industries are bad and that the nation must move into high tech”.

Michael Porter and Industrial Clusters

February 15, 2011February 14, 2011

“A nation can be prosperous and productive in virtually any field. What matters is how a nation competes, not what industry it competes in…we must stop thinking that traditional industries are bad and that the nation must move into high tech”.(Harvard Professor Michael Porter)

[MiningWatch Canada Ring of Fire report] Power requirements a concern – by Carol Mulligan

February 14, 2011

Carol Mulligan is a reporter for the Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

For the MiningWatch Canada report written by Joan Kuyek, please click here: Economic Analysis of the Ring of Fire Chromite Mining Play

For an extensive list of articles on this mineral discovery, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

The author of an economic analysis on the Ring of Fire chromite deposits urges Ontarians to ask a couple of basic questions about the benefits of developing the resource.

What will it cost taxpayers of the province of Ontario for every job that is created? And, is the cost worth it?

Joan Kuyek wrote the report for MiningWatch Canada, a national non-profit organization that examines mining and its effects on communities. Formerly of Sudbury and now living in Ottawa, Kuyek was commissioned by MiningWatch to conduct a preliminary review of the economics of mining the rich chromite deposits in Northern Ontario.

In the opening paragraph of her 20-page report, Kuyek said there is no experience in chromite mining or ferrochrome production in Canada.