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[Mining conflict] A majestic Yukon where humans are still outsiders – by Paul Watson (Toronto Star – August 20, 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.

BONNET PLUME LAKE, YUKON—Sketching peaks shrouded in morning mist, Joyce Majiski squints up at bands of red blue and green all around her, searching for signs of our planet’s ancient enduring heartbeat.

In one of Canada’s last wilderness watersheds, a vast expanse where humans are still outsiders, the artist biologist and former river guide can hear the murmur of water spilling down a steep creek bed on the far side of this placid lake.

It’s fed by patches of melting snow that wind through scree deposited by a glacier that disappeared when the planet warmed at the end of the last Ice Age, leaving a bowl (“cirque”) carved out of the mountainside.

We are sitting on the edge of Bonnet Plume Lake, 1,153 metres above sea level, where the loudest sound is a late summer breeze.

The peace belies an epic conflict playing out across Canada’s North, where aboriginal people and environmental activists are pushing back against building pressures from a warming climate and the global demand for more resources.

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Betting on platinum group metals – by Rita Poliakow (Sudbury Star – August 20, 2011)

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

I don’t know where I am. I don’t know the people around me and I can’t pronounce the word palladium. Actually, I’m not even sure what it is. A mineral, I suppose, because Harry Barr, of Pacific North West Capital Corp., seems really excited about it.

Palladium’s price, it seems, has soared, making the River Valley exploration project, just outside of Sudbury, a possible financial gold mine. The mining exploration company specializes in platinum group metals, which includes platinum, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium and iridium.

These metals can be as rare as gold. And as profitable.

Standing around River Valley, an exploration site owned by Pacific North West about 100 km from Sudbury, I realize what this article has turned into. Far from an introduction to mining, it’s more like one of those “What doesn’t belong” games. And the answer, in case you haven’t guessed, is me.

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NEWS RELEASE: Government Intervention May Threaten Global Mining Industry – Quebec Remains One of the Best Places to Invest

To consult a full report on the mining sector please visit: http://www.rcgt.com/en/experts-opinions/anand-beejan-unveiling-global-study-mining-sector/.

“The Northern Plan has strengthened Quebec’s position as one of the best places to invest in the mining sector in the world,” – Anand Beejan, Partner and Mining Sector Expert

Montreal, August 17, 2011 – Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton unveiled today a global study on the mining sector conducted by Grant Thornton International. The report demonstrates that government intervention in the mining sector is causing high levels of uncertainty among companies and investors. In addition, it states that the current approach of governments threatens not only the long-term growth of the mining industry, but also that of the global economy.

The report states that increasing and unpredictable intervention across the world’s leading mining jurisdictions is adding uncertainty to a sector already laden with risk. Changes to taxation, nationalisation of resources and environmental legislation are pushing complexity to acute levels for mining companies and pose a threat to commodity prices. In this regard, the extent of government interventions are also increasing risks for investors, clouding corporate valuations and making it harder to raise capital.

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Round two for Ring of Fire’s Richard Nemis – by Norm Tollinsky (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal – September, 2011)

This article was originally published in the September, 2011 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal and written by editor Norm Tollinsky.

“If the financiers in downtown Toronto see any kind of risk,
they move on to the next thing. They’re looking at it
[Ring of Fire] and saying ‘We love the Hudson Bay Lowlands
and we think there’s going to be all kinds of things found
in the future, but we don’t know when that’s going to happen,
so our money is going to go to shorter term opportunities.’”
When there is some clarity on the issue of infrastructure,
“everything up there will boom.” (Richard Nemis – 2010 PDAC
 Prospector of the Year Co-Winner)

Award winning mining promoter offers new take on the Ring of Fire

Richard Nemis, the Sudbury-born lawyer turned mining promoter, is back in the ring. Down for the count after relinquishing his post as president of Noront Resources in 2008, Nemis is once again poring over maps, knocking on doors and mobilizing drill rigs to the furthest reaches of Ontario’s Far North.

Nemis has reassembled the team credited with the discovery of Noront’s Eagle’s Nest nickel-PGE deposit in the Ring of Fire, launched two new companies, Rencore Resources Ltd. and Bold Ventures Inc., and raised $10 million from Dundee Corporation to test promising geophysical anomalies west of the currently accepted boundaries of the Ring of Fire.

“Our theory is that the Ring of Fire is a lot bigger and goes a lot further,” possibly extending as far as Thomson, Manitoba, said Nemis. The western extension of the Ring of Fire is interrupted by the Winisk River Provincial Park, a no-go area for mineral exploration, but airborne geophysics commissioned by Rencore has identified 16 potential drill targets in the so-called REN-6 and REN-8 claim groups west of the park.

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Building human capacity: the Vale solution – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal- September, 2011)

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca This column was originally published in the September, 2011 issue of Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal.

 
Building human capacity: the Vale solution – by Dick DeStefano (Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal- September, 2011)

The global mining industry will face a serious problem in the near future acquiring and developing the human potential required to maintain economic viability. We need to find solutions very quickly to solve the problem.

According to the Mining Industry Human Resource Council’s (MiHR) 2010 Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecast report, under the baseline scenario the Canadian mining industry will need to hire approximately 100,000 new workers by the end of 2020. This is the number of workers required to fill newly created positions and to meet replacement demand as workers retire or leave the mining industry.

Australia shows a similar trend, with skilled jobs in the mining industry doubling within the next 10 years to 215,000. In 2005, the U.S. Society of Mining Engineers reported that 58 per cent of industry workers were over the age of 50.

Northern College and other educational institutions in northeastern Ontario are making attempts through their academic programs to solve the problem.

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“Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” (Part 6 of 6)

While most of the publication “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” is written in the Finnish language, the following six English summaries give valuable insight into this largely unknown energy source. Vapo Oy is the largest producer of Peat Fuel in Finland.

Developments in Peat Harvesting Technology in Finland – Summary

Between the 1940s and the present, Finland’s peat industry went from being behind technologically to become the world’s leading innovator and producer of peat technology.

Between the 1940s and the 1960s the Association of Finnish Peat Industries, which was established during the war years, took care that Finnish know-how did not lag behind that of the world’s leading peat producing nations: the Soviet Union, Germany and Ireland. The period of cheap oil in the 1950s and 1960s spelt a downturn for Finland’s peat industry.

The Association of Finnish Peat Industries nonetheless actively monitored technological innovations in the sector. A particular area of interest was the milled peat technology developed in the Soviet Union which allowed large production volumes on a viable industrial scale. Milled peat could be used to make both garden and fuel peat and as a fuel for pulverised fuel-fired power plants.

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“Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” (Part 5 of 6)

While most of the publication “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” is written in the Finnish language, the following six English summaries give valuable insight into this largely unknown energy source. Vapo Oy is the largest producer of Peat Fuel in Finland.

The Energy Peat Market in Finland – Summary

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s the decision makers in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the management of the State Fuel Centre wisely foresaw that it was necessary to create a functioning market for peat. Small-scale producers, inconsistent peat quality and reliance on one customer (the Finnish State Railways) were factors that sowed the seeds of destruction for sod peat production in the 1950s. Admittedly the sector had also been depressed by exceptionally cheap oil. It had become clear that without state subsidies the peat industry could not compete against oil and coal because the imported fuels had a higher thermal value and prices in the 1960s were heading downwards.

Peat had to make up in price and security of supply what it lost in thermal value. A price comparison was made with oil in the 1960s and the early 1970s. Essentially peat was, and still is, a good fuel in terms of security of supply because the production, supply and usage chains are all within Finland.

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“Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” (Part 4 of 6)

While most of the publication “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” is written in the Finnish language, the following six English summaries give valuable insight into this largely unknown energy source. Vapo Oy is the largest producer of Peat Fuel in Finland.

Peat as a Source of Energy: Environmental Awareness and Environmental Protection – Summary

Environmental protection and environmental awareness related to the utilisation of peat and peatlands have undergone a considerable transformation between the 1960s and the present day. The focus of environmental protection has also varied over time: in the 1960s and 70s mire conservation programmes and the impact of the peat industry on conservation targets were in the forefront; in the 1980s and 90s watercourse protection and the impact of peat extraction on biodiversity were among the key issues, and in the 1990s and since 2000 environmental protection has been dominated by climate policy, linked to the greenhouse gas emissions from peat combustion and the land usage of peatlands.

In terms of environmental awareness, there has been a progression towards a principle of increased environmental responsibility. The awareness of the peat industry – and of Finnish industry in general – of the environmental impact of their activities increased in the 1980s, and at the same time data on the impacts became available, the authorities imposed more standards and environmental protection started to be a major area of stakeholder interaction.

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“Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” (Part 3 of 6)

While most of the publication “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” is written in the Finnish language, the following six English summaries give valuable insight into this largely unknown energy source. Vapo Oy is the largest producer of Peat Fuel in Finland.

Finnish Energy Policy and Peat as a Source of Energy – Summary

Finnish policy on energy and the operations of Vapo, which are elucidated in this chapter, changed quite drastically from the days of the Arab oil embargo in the early 1970s to the present day.

Before the first oil crisis in 1973–74, the Finnish energy system relied basically on hydropower and increasing imports of coal and crude oil. Especially in the 1960s, the energy self-sufficiency rate weakened and oil dependency grew significantly, causing problems for the security of energy supply. In addition, energy efficiency and energy savings were not a high priority since Finland imported most of its energy carriers (oil and coal) from the USSR.

The use of wood as an energy source, a traditional fuel for cooking and heating for centuries and for industrial power plants since the adoption of combustion technology in the late 19th century, declined after the Second World War as a result of nationwide electrification and the emergence of oil-fuelled district heating systems and power plants. Oil prices remained very low from the Korean War to the beginning of the 1970s.

Furthermore, policies regarding the use of forest resources were dictated by the importance of the expanding forest industry for the economy as a whole, and thus the use of wood as an energy source for non-industrial combustion plants was not particularly championed in the 1960s.

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“Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” (Part 2 of 6)

While most of the publication “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” is written in the Finnish language, the following six English summaries give valuable insight into this largely unknown energy source. Vapo Oy is the largest producer of Peat Fuel in Finland.

Peat as an Energy Source before the First Oil Crisis – Summary

The subject of this study – biomass energy (e.g. wood, peat, reed canary grass, crops and waste) – is an area that has raised expectations in countries with extensive forest and peatland resources and fields. In spite of its CO2 emissions, biomass combustion is generally considered to be greenhouse gas-neutral because it is part of the contemporary carbon cycle (Randolph & Masters 2008).

However, peat is an exception among biomass-based fuels; it has been classified as a fossil fuel by the EU and as a slowly renewable biomass fuel by the Finnish government and the Finnish and Swedish peat industries. Thus it is not globally accepted that peat can be classified as a slowly renewable energy source or even as a biomass. Patrick Crill, Atte Korhola and Ken Hargreaves, all internationally recognised peatland and climate change experts, suggested in 2000 that peat should be classified as a biomass fuel, so as to distinguish it from biofuels (such as wood) and from fossil fuels (such as coal, lignite and oil shale) (Crill, Korhola and Hargreaves 2000).

However, their reasoning and conclusions have been criticized by environmental movements. The discussion on the classification of peat is still on going. Based on research by Finnish and Swedish scientists in the early 2000s, the IPCC placed peat fuel in a separate category, “peat”, occupying an intermediate position between biomass and lignite. On the whole, peat is still an energy source the definitions of which vary enormously between countries and also political parties.

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“Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” (Part 1 of 6)

While most of the publication “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” is written in the Finnish language, the following six English summaries give valuable insight into this largely unknown energy source. Vapo Oy is the largest producer of Peat Fuel in Finland.

Northern Ontario has some of the largest deposits of peat fuel in the world. The North’s vast bogs have the energy equivalent of 72 billion barrels of oil – this province’s own version of the Alberta tar sands, none of which is being harvested for energy use. Current provincial resources policies are very hostile to the sustainable development of this strategic energy source. – Stan Sudol

Power and Heat from Peat

The use of peat for energy has a long and colourful history. The attitudes towards peat have ranged from confidence to criticism – often based on a vague understanding of how peat can be utilised.

Vapo’s 70th Anniversary Commemorative Book “Power and Heat from Peat – Peat in Finnish Energy Policy” takes the reader through yet unexplored paths of history and describes how peat has become an important part of Finland’s energy supply.

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Hudak would ‘suspend’ $122M GO Transit deal going to Quebec – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – August 18, 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.

Tory Leader Tim Hudak would “suspend” a $122 million contract with a Quebec firm to refurbish GO Transit coaches if he becomes premier this October.

This is the latest big ticket contract Hudak is looking at nixing. The Tories also intend to get rid of the $7 billion green energy Samsung agreement, which his party has dubbed the “king of all secret, sweetheart deals”.

North Bay’s Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, a Crown corporation, lost the bid to refurbish the GO trains which are owned by Metrolinx, another Crown firm. As a result nearly 109 jobs will be lost, said Nipissing Progressive Conservative candidate Vic Fedeli.

“We would immediately suspend it, then review it to see what our options are,” Fedeli told the Toronto Star on Wednesday.

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Venezuela’s Chavez says he’ll nationalize gold mines – by David Ebner (Globe and Mail – August 18, 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.

Hugo Chavez is attempting to capitalize on record gold prices with a plan to nationalize the industry in Venezuela, a move to bolster the South American country’s financial reserves.

The erratic Venezuelan president made the declaration on Wednesday by telephone, during a military ceremony, to the country’s national television broadcaster. Mr. Chavez said an official decree would soon be issued and called on the military to enforce the move.

“I have here the laws allowing the state to exploit gold and all related activities,” said Mr. Chavez in comments reported by Reuters from Caracas. “We are going to nationalize the gold and we are going to convert it, among other things, into international reserves because gold continues to increase in value.”

Venezuela produces very little gold, officially about 150,000 ounces a year, which is about 2 per cent of the output of Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s largest bullion miner.

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Weak demand saps nickel prices – by Pratima Desai – Reuters (Sudbury Star – August 17, 2011)

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

LONDON — Deteriorating demand from stainless steel mills and rising mine production are likely to push the nickel market into surplus in the second half of the year and put modest downward pressure on prices.

The uncertain outlook for global economic growth and demand because of the debt crisis in the euro zone and the United States mean gloomier prospects for nickel demand.

Stainless steel producers use about two-thirds of global nickel output, which is estimated at above 1.5 million tonnes this year.

First-quarter production of stainless steel rose to a record high of 8.390 million tonnes, according to the International Stainless Steel Forum, and expectations for the second quarter are, at best, flat.

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[Anti-asbestos] Ottawa widow stands firm against Conservative threats – by Time Harper (Toronto Star – August 17, 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.

Michaela Keyserlingk pauses when asked to recite her history of political activism. She seems to recall writing a letter to the local school board some years back after it closed some schools.

But over the past 72 hours, the Ottawa woman has outsmarted the propaganda arm of the Harper government after it handed her a gift, allowing her to publicize a cause she has championed in honour of her late husband.

The Conservative party may have success demonizing the Liberal party or painting the national media as agents of evil, but it appears to have met its match in this Ottawa widow.

Keyserlingk lost her husband, a retired university professor and one-time Progressive Conservative riding association president for Ottawa Centre, to asbestos-related cancer in December, 2009.

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