Twitter

[MAC’s Pierre Gratton says] embrace foreign investment – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – August 26, 2011)

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

“We have already succeeded as Canadians on the global
mining stage. We are every-where…Canada’s voice is
loud, the Canadian industry is loud, our expertise is
used everywhere, our government legislation is copied
everywhere. We have nothing to fear about our place
in the world.” (Pierre Gratton, President and CEO,
Mining Association of Canada)

It can be a difficult message to deliver, but someone has to do it, says the head of an organization that calls itself the voice of the mining industry in Canada.

Foreign investment in mining companies is a good thing and should not be feared, says Pierre Gratton.

In Sudbury, for instance, the billions in investments that Vale is looking to make in its Sudbury operations might not have been made by the former Inco Ltd.

Gratton, president and chief executive officer of the Mining Association of Canada, urged an audience of 200 people Thursday to “avoid protectionism.”

Read more

Sudbury ready to cash in [on mining investments] – by Carol Mulligan

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

“If we do the right things, mining can literally help
dig Ontario out of its debt.” (Chris Hodgson, President
and CEO Ontario Mining Association)

Sudbury is well-positioned to benefit from that mining
boom because it has the largest integrated mining complex
in the world and one of the largest nickel-copper
sulphide bodies. (Pierre Gratton, President and CEO,
Mining Association of Canada)

Sudbury stands to benefit from investments in mining operations to the tune of about $5.2 billion in the next five years. That’s a healthy percentage of the $136.4 billion in capital expected to be invested in mining projects throughout Canada from 2012 to 2017.

All of those billions will go into mining projects already in existence, says the president and chief executive officer of the Mining Association of Canada.

That doesn’t include private and public money that may be invested in projects to develop, mine, smelt and transport chromite from the Ring of Fire in northwestern Ontario.

Pierre Gratton was one of two guests who spoke to the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce on Thursday about how the city can benefit from the current up cycle in the metals industry.

China will continue to be a mineral price driver as its econo my continues to grow at double-digit rates. That demand is long-term, with expectations its growth will still be in the 6% to 9% range from 2020-2025.

Read more

Ribbon cut for Vale Living with Lakes Centre – by Rita Poliakov (Sudbury Star – August 26, 2011)

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

John Gunn may have won the battle, but now he’s focused on the war. The director of the Vale Living With Lakes Centre, which was officially opened on Thursday, first started raising funds for the building in 1992.

Since then, the Co-operative Freshwater Ecology Unit at Laurentian University has tried to build a new centre three times. Instead, the unit’s researchers operated out of several small white houses by Ramsey Lake.

“I feel like I’m (still) fighting. The work is ahead of us. The most important thing now is the work itself,” said Gunn, the Canada Research Chair in Stressed Aquatic Systems at Laurentian.

“I think we’re just starting out. This is the time to be looking ahead. How do we attract those new young researchers?”

Read more

OMA President points out a greater potential for mining in Ontario

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.

Ontario Mining Association President Chris Hodgson presented a positive vision for the future of mining in Ontario at a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce President’s Series Luncheon event today.  Sharing the podium with Mr. Hodgson was Pierre Gratton, President of the Mining Association of Canada.

A sell-out crowd of about 200 attended the gathering, which was held at Bryston’s On The Park in Copper Cliff.  Mr. Hodgson’s remarks were based on the OMA document “Action Plan for Ontario: Taking Advantage of a Critical Window of Opportunity,” which is available on the OMA website www.oma.on.ca. 

This vision sees mining helping all Ontarians achieve greater prosperity and a greener economy with more concerted government support and a deliberate strategy.  Increasingly rapid globalization and urbanization have analysts around the world anticipating unprecedented commodity demand in the next two decades.  For a jurisdiction like Ontario with an enviable geological endowment, this is a call to action.

Read more

Federal government gets it! Harper supports northern mining – by Marilyn Scales

Marilyn Scales is a field editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. She is one of Canada’s most senior mining commentators.

Miners rejoice! The Canadian government understands the enormous potential of developing natural resources in the Arctic.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made his annual pilgrimage to the North this week, including a stop at Agnico-Eagle’s Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake, NU. He told miners and guests, “Development of the North’s awesome resource potential is a national economic challenge which could yield enormous national economic benefits. The primary beneficiaries will be Northerners themselves, but the wealth generated here will create jobs and opportunities for Canadians all across the country.”

Since the Harper government was first elected in 2006, it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in development of the North. Some of the money has gone into the GEM geo-mapping program, better to understand where resources might be found. And this week the feds committed $230,000 over three years to support an office in Iqaluit for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Read more

NEWS RELEASE: [Sudbury-based] NORCAT Recognized for Outstanding Achievement by NASA

August 25, 2011 – The Northern Centre for Advanced Technology Inc. (NORCAT), has been awarded the NASA Group Achievement Award for outstanding efforts in support of the 2010 International Lunar Surface Operations InSitu resource Utilization Field Test (ILSO-ISRU). Specifically this distinction is awarded in recognition of the quality of results and level of impact on NASA programs, effective management of cost and schedule, customer satisfaction, capacity for future contribution and the development of innovative approaches in responding to unforeseen crises.

In addition to technical contributions such as the drill and sample acquisition system for the NASA RESOLVE lunar water prospector testing and fuel cell system design for the lunar water utilization experiment, NORCAT’s role during this ILSO-ISRU field exercise was as overall field mission lead and coordinator.

Read more

Harper defends Nunavut waste decision – by Mike De Souza (Montreal Gazette – August 25, 2011)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/

Gold mine allowed to dump in lake; Environmental issues ‘have to be addressed, but that can’t stop development,’ PM says

Prime Minister Stephen Harper pointed to environmental effects of development in Canada’s largest cities Wednesday and defended a government decision to allow a local gold mine to dump its waste into nearby fish habitat.

“Obviously, when you dig holes here you create some environmental issues and those have to be addressed, but that can’t stop development, any more than we would let that stop development in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver,” Harper said, drawing applause from local workers at the Meadowbank gold mine.

“The people here care about the environment. They’re partners in the environment, but they have as much right to development and opportunity as people in any other part of the country.”

Read more

Prime Minister Stephen Harper pushes mining expansion in Arctic – by Gloria Galloway (Globe and Mail – August 25, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

The GDP in this territory [Nunavut] rose nearly 15 per cent last
year, due in large part to the [Agnico-Eagle] Meadowbank
mine. And developers are considering 10 to 12 other mines
for gold, uranium, diamonds and iron ore.

“Development of the North’s awesome resource potential
is a national economic challenge, which could yield
enormous national economic benefits…The primary
beneficiaries will be Northerners themselves, but the
wealth generated here will create jobs and opportunities
for Canadians all across the country.” (Prime Minister
Stephen Harper – Baker Lake, Nunavut – August 24, 2011)

BAKER LAKE, NUNAVUT – While Billie-Jo Eindhoven’s friends back in the Nunavut hamlet Rankin Inlet are having babies, she is 300 kilometres away, driving 150-tonne trucks around the rocky pit of the Meadowbank gold mine.

Ms. Eindhoven, 24, started off as a kitchen helper, and moved to the trucks five months later “mostly for the challenge,” she said on Wednesday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his entourage arrived at what is now the only working mine in this territory.

The recent surge in the price of gold, which is still above $1,700 an ounce despite a recent dip, has made it easier for the Prime Minister to boast about the burgeoning development of the natural resources that lie below the tundra in Canada’s far North.

Read more

Diefenbaker gave Canada a [northern] dream worth following – by Arthur Milnes (Toronto Star – June 8, 2007)

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.

“This is the vision,” Diefenbaker shouted on the hustings
in 1958. “One Canada. One Canada, where Canadians will have
preserved to them the control of their own economic and
political destiny. Sir John A. Macdonald saw Canada from
east to west: He opened the west. I see a new Canada –
a Canada of the North. This is the vision.”

It was 50 years ago Sunday that collectively as Canadians we began to “Follow John.” On June 10, 1957, John Diefenbaker did the impossible and removed the Liberals from the government benches in Ottawa after 22 years in power.

And what a journey it was, as the drama of Diefenbaker and what became known as the Tenth Decade (leading up to Centennial year in 1967) played out before us.

The final scenes in the storied legend – a train to return him to his beloved Prairies for burial, as ordinary Canadians came out and stood at rural sidings in respect for the great man as he went by a final time – are now ingrained in our collective memory and history.

Read more

John Diefenbaker’s “A New Vision” Northern Speech – (February 12, 1958)

John G. Diefenbake’s “A New Vision” speech was given at the Civic Auditorium, Winnipeg, 12 February 1958

Ladies and gentlemen, we started in the last few months, since June the 10th, to carry out our promises, and I can tell you this, that as long as I am Prime Minister of this country, the welfare of the average Canadian will not be forgotten. We intend to launch for the future, we have laid the foundations now, the long-range objectives of this party.

We ask from you a mandate; a new and a stronger mandate, to pursue the planning and to carry to fruition our new national development programme for Canada. For years we raised that in the House of Commons, and those in authority ridiculed it. Day before yesterday, Mr. Pearson came out in favour of a national development policy. Why didn’t they do it when they were in power?

This national development policy will create a new sense of national purpose and national destiny. One Canada. One Canada, wherein Canadians will have preserved to them the control of their own economic and political destiny. Sir John A. Macdonald gave his life to this party. He opened the West. He saw Canada from East to West. I see a new Canada – a Canada of the North. What are these new principles? What are our objectives? What do we propose? We propose to assist the provinces, with their co-operation, in the financing and construction of job-creating projects necessary for the new development, where such projects are beyond the resources of the provinces.

Read more

Nunavut’s future is underground, says Harper – Allan Woods (Toronto Star – August 25, 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.

“Our government is the first since that of Prime Minister Diefenbaker to put the north at the top of Canada’s agenda. We put it there and we will keep it there, and the north’s best years are only beginning.” (Prime Minister Stephen Harper – Agnico-Eagle’s Meadowbank Mine, Nunavut – August 24, 2011)

BAKER LAKE, NUNAVUT—A gold mine on the tundra is helping Nunavut blast, haul, crush, melt and pour its way to prosperity and that is just the way Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants it to be.

The future in this long-impoverished territory is under the ground and the role he has set for his government is to help mining companies find it. The environmental consequences won’t exactly be damned, but they won’t exactly stand in the way either.

“Obviously when you dig holes here, you know, you create some environmental issues and those issues have to be addressed, but that can’t stop development any more than we would let that stop development in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver,” Harper said at the Meadowbank Mine, which is owned by Toronto-based Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.

There are “extraordinary circumstances” in which the government has and would refuse to permit certain projects to go ahead. Under normal circumstances, when the environmental checks and balances are completed “we want to see projects occur,” Harper said.

Read more

Chavez nationalizes all gold mines in Venezuela – Globe and Mail Editorial (August 25, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

What Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President, intends to do with his decree on Tuesday nationalizing all the gold mines in the country is by no means clear; in particular, it is not known whether any compensation, let alone how much, will be offered. There has been a Canada-Venezuela Investment Protection Treaty since 1996, which might help.

Before this week’s decree, two Canadian companies, Crystallex International Inc. and Gold Reserve Inc., were already suing the Venezuelan government because they had been deprived of their gold interests, in unwieldy international arbitration proceedings under the treaty. As it happens, Gold Reserve Inc. revised its claim upwards in August, to $2.1-billion.

Rusoro Mining Ltd., a Vancouver-based firm that is now the only non-Venezuelan company to be actually mining gold in the country, is remaining calm. It has some reason to hope that the nationalization is aimed at wildcatters and smugglers in the southeastern state of Bolivar, not at enterprises of any size. But the company may be prudently refraining from provoking Mr. Chavez by expressing concern.

Read more

Yellowknife feels at home at the Range [Mining frontier culture]- Katherine Laidlaw (Toronto Star – August 25, 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.

YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T.—As the front-woman for the house band at one of the North’s most famous watering holes, Karen Single has spent many a night belting out pop tunes to a frenzied crowd at the “Strange Range.”

But none compare to a night two years ago when an unexpected guest hopped onstage to help out. “I had an elder, she must have been 90 years old, come up on stage. We sang ‘Thunderstruck’ by ACDC. Where else do you get that?”

“She was somebody’s grandma,” she says, laughing. But memories like those that hang in the balance as the Range’s future is called into question. Council is looking to redevelop 50th Street (known as “Range Street”) — a stretch of road that has long been an eyesore and a gathering place for Yellowknife’s homeless and intoxicated.

Read more

Tories’ asbestos policy ‘unethical and shameful’ say Canadian doctors – Joanna Smith (Toronto Star – August 25, 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.

ST. JOHN’S—The Canadian Medical Association condemned the Conservative government for blocking asbestos from being listed as a hazardous substance around the world earlier this summer.

“I think this sends a strong message to the federal government that their unethical and shameful behaviour will not be tolerated by the physicians of Canada,” Dr. Barry Turchen of Abbotsford, B.C. told the annual gathering of the national body representing about 75,000 doctors on Wednesday.

Canada opposed the inclusion of chrysotile asbestos in a United Nations treaty last June that would have forced exporters to warn importing countries of health hazards.

The Rotterdam Convention, which operates by consensus, would have also given recipient countries the freedom to refuse to allow the product to enter their borders if they did not believe they could handle it safely.

Read more