Republic of Mining

Protect the [mine financing] cluster [Toronto] – by Janet Ecker (National Post-April 14, 2011)

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post section on April 14, 2011.

Janet Ecker is president of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance.

The proposed merger of TMX Group and the London Stock Exchange has provoked uncharacteristicallystrong and diverse reactions within the financial community. Those mixed views were clearly displayed during four days of hearings on the deal before the select committee of the Ontario Legislature. How they will judge the strong arguments for and against the deal in their report later this month is anyone’s guess.

Whatever their verdict, and those of the review processes yet to come, we must remember that Toronto is the global leader in mining and metals financing, with TMX playing a significant role. With or without this deal, all sides agree on the need to retain that leadership.

The Toronto exchange (TSX or TSX Venture) lists nearly six in 10 of the world’s publicly listed mining companies, and last year they raised $17.8billion in equity capital -60% of the world’s total for the sector.

Aboriginal Owned Junior Miner in holding pattern – by Ian Ross

April 14, 2011

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. This column was published in the April 2011 issue.

Bending Lake Iron examines site options for processing plant

An Aboriginally-owned mining company still has Atikokan in its sights for an iron ore processing plant despite delays in accessing a former open pit mine.

In mid-February, Bending Lake Iron Group president Henry Wetelainen was hopeful of signing a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) toward advancing their merchant pig iron project in northwestern Ontario.

He was expecting the agreement to be signed by Jan. 31, but nothing has happened yet when contacted in February.

The Thunder Bay company wants to mine iron ore near Ignace and process it into pig iron at the abandoned Steep Rock open pit mine near Atikokan.

Reform revolt: [Northern Ontario] Opposition to Bill 151 grows – by Ron Grech (The Daily Press- April 13, 2011)

April 14, 2011

Ron Grech is a reporter for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at rgrech@thedailypress.ca

During a week when the Ontario professional foresters are gathered in Timmins, the province is taking it on the chin over plans to reform forestry tenure.

Both the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) issued statements Wednesday condemning the government over Bill 151 — The Ontario Forest Tenure Modernization Act.

The day before that, Timmins-James Bay MPP Gilles Bisson challenged Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Minister Michael Gravelle over what the local MPP felt was a lack of consultation being conducted in Northern Ontario.

The government recently rejected calls for public consultation meetings in the North. Instead, it opted to hold two meetings — both of them in Toronto.

[Boreal Forest Agreement] First Nations caught in ‘the big (land) squeeze’- Peggy Smith (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal-April 9, 2011)

April 14, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This letter to the editor was originally published on April 9, 2011.

Conservation has become a new form of development and
colonization that further restricts and ignores First
Nation rights to land and a way of life.
(Peggy Smith-Thunder Bay)

I have to disagree with Stephen Kakfwi (Boreal Forest Agreement: It’s Time to Forgive and Move Forward). First Nations in the boreal region of Northern Ontario are not in control of their lands.

The Province of Ontario has long ignored the treaties that First Nations signed over 100 years ago. Those treaties (Robinson-Huron, Robinson-Superior, Treaty 3, Treaty 5 and Treaty 9) were, in First Nations’ view, about sharing lands and resources.

While colonizers got rich on extracting resources from First Nation lands, First Nations were excluded from those benefits and spiralled into poverty and alienation from their lands — up until recently First Nations were not even allowed to cut firewood on Crown land without a permit. Even on federally-owned reserves, historically First Nations had to ask the Minister of Indian Affairs for permission to cut green wood.

Rare Earths: Critical and Strategic – or the Flavour of the Month? – by Paul Stothart

April 12, 2011

Paul Stothart is vice-president, economic affairs of the Mining Association of Canada. He is responsible for advancing the industry’s interests regarding federal tax, trade, investment, transport and energy issues. This article was published in February, 2011.

In political Ottawa, where parliamentarians can be exposed to dozens of different issues in an average week, it is not unusual for policy issues or media stories to acquire profile based on a superficial level of understanding. This has happened in recent months in the mining sphere, for example, where many MPs supported flawed private member’s legislation regarding international activities of mining companies so as to not be perceived as “opposing social progress”. On a broader scale, much of the art of political communications seeks to capitalize on superficiality and is oriented around developing a simple effective message and repeating it time and again. (Mining companies have communications lessons to learn on this front, though that is a subject for another day).

The same practice of applying simplistic analysis to interesting and complex policy issues may be occurring in the area of rare earths elements (REE), where the subject has acquired a high level of sex appeal among politicians in Europe, in the United States and in Canada in recent months. There are several developments that have contributed to this new heightened profile, although three are particularly relevant:

• First, commentators have become increasingly aware of the fact that China controls a high portion of the supply of the world’s processed rare earth minerals. While figures may vary among light and heavy REEs, the most commonly cited figure is that China produces 97% of the world’s rare earths.

Ontario Northern Growth Plan better than it looks – by David Robinson

April 12, 2011

Dave Robinson is an economist with the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University. drobinson@laurentian.ca

There is little enthusiasm for the so-called Northern Growth Plan. Public comments are lukewarm. Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk, for example, offered the opinion that it might be good that there isn’t a lot detail, that it leaves room for improvements.

In private, responses range from boredom to outright contempt. In fact, the plan is not really all that bad, though it isn’t actually a plan, of course; rather, it is really a list of guiding principles for the hundreds of sub-departments of the ministries that run Northern Ontario.

They are finally trying to get their act together. Minister of Infrastructure Bob Chiarelli is promising to support a lot of obvious good things and to encourage everyone else to develop real plans based on the principles in “The Plan.”

Cutting through the fog [Aboriginal, Industry and Environment Relations]- (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal editorial – April 10, 2011)

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario. This editorial was originally published on April 10, 2011.

AS the chasm of trust between Aboriginals and the rest of Canada widens, every effort to shrink it deserves encouragement. Two such initiatives have surfaced, and while one remains in play, the other has been batted away.

For decades, relations between conservation groups and the forest industry have been poisoned. Greenpeace banners hung from pulp mill smokestacks vividly portrayed an absence of will and trust.

So when 21 forest companies and nine environmental organizations quietly came up with the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement last year there was cause for celebration. The pact would regulate forest management practices across 72 million hectares of boreal forest and protect 29 million hectares from development.

Animosity builds over Ontario forestry legislation – by Ian Ross

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011

Hearings on Bill 151 will be held in Toronto, April 11 and 13. These are the final hearings before the legislation goes to third reading. Community and industry rancor continues to build against the McGuinty government over the refusal to stage a final round of consultation meetings in Northern Ontario before a new forestry bill is passed into law.

Hearings on Bill 151 – Ontario’s Forest Tenure Modernization Act — will be held in Toronto, April 11 and 13. These are the final hearings before the legislation goes to third reading.

During a March 30 government standing committee, Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Mike Brown kicked a hornet’s nest when he shot down a recommendation to stage hearings in Pembroke, Timmins, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste. Marie in favour of two days of hearings in Toronto.

The government said delegations from the North can appear in person or make their comments through video conferencing.

Resource Nationalism: The new global economic rent – by John Lee and Johan Erasmus

April 10, 2011

John Lee is Executive Director, Tax, Ernst & Young LLP and Johan Erasmus is Senior Manager, Tax, Ernst & Young LLP. This column was orginally published in December 2010.

The global financial crisis led to massive budget deficits as many governments injected cash to their economies by way of massive stimulus packages. At the same time, minimized tax collection during and after economic crisis reduced government revenues dramatically.

The relatively swift rebound of the mining and metals industry attracted the attention of deficit-strapped governments and resulted in the industry becoming an early target to replenish national treasuries.

Our company’s report Business Risks Facing Mining and Metals identifies resource nationalism as the fourth-greatest strategic business risk the sector is facing (up from ninth place in 2009). The report identifies how mineral-rich countries are renewing efforts to ensure that they are extracting sufficient economic rent, including royalties, taxes and duties, for the right of a mining company to exploit their resources.

In some instances, governments are even looking to replace and repair other areas of lost revenue with further imposts on the sector, obtaining a larger share of higher mineral prices.

Multi-billion dollar investments in our country [Canada] – by Tom Albanese, CEO Rio Tinto (Montreal-April 7, 2011)

April 8, 2011

Last year, we formed a key strategic partnership with world leading researchers to create the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction in Sudbury, Ontario. This $10 million initiative will focus on innovative, rapid mine construction, and ground control for mining at depth. The centre has become a key part in our set of five long-term Rio Tinto research centres around the world. (Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese – April 7, 2011)

Location: Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, Montreal (April 7, 2011)

Introduction

Bonjour. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you, Michel, for your kind introduction.

What I would like to do today is share with you my view of Rio Tinto’s world. It is a world of strong markets – today with China, tomorrow with India and other parts of the world – and constrained mineral supply. I also want to talk about what it all means for Canada.

Before proceeding though, I must confess that as today’s luncheon drew near, it occurred to me there might be some connection between my scheduled appearances at your functions, and the onset of global turmoil.

I last had the privilege of addressing this audience in late October 2008 when, as I’m sure you recall, we were in the midst of the global financial crisis. To make matters even more challenging, Rio Tinto was also the target of a hostile takeover bid. Notwithstanding my optimism about longer-term trends, the past three years have confirmed we continue to live in an uncertain and volatile world.

Rio Tinto has been through some challenging times. So has the team that I lead. But the challenges met have made for a stronger company, a stronger team, and stronger individuals.

The Competitiveness of Mineral Processing in Canada – by Paul Stothart

April 8, 2011

Throughout our history, there has been a call for greater value-added in Canadian resource production. The image of Canada as a hewer of wood and drawer of water has long irritated many Canadians – including politicians and industrial strategists who have felt that Canada should be more sophisticated and more active in manufacturing value-added products.

Rather than exporting lumber, we should export furniture or even prefab houses. In the mining sphere, rather than sending raw concentrate or bitumen abroad, we should be producing refined petroleum products, chemicals, finished jewelry, specialized metal alloys and the like. Or to move another few steps along the continuum, we should have inherent raw material advantages in producing computers, iPods, medical equipment and machinery.

There has historically been some appeal to this argument, including at the political level. Why send something abroad in an unfinished form when additional jobs and wealth could be associated with adding production value at home? This has manifested itself on some occasions in past decades, when inland mineral processing facilities in Ontario, Manitoba and New Brunswick were established largely for political reasons. Several of these facilities are today under competitive pressure – more so because of poor location rather than a failed economic model.

OMA member profile: Kirkland Lake Gold-new mines for old sites

April 8, 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.

Ontario Mining Association member Kirkland Lake Gold is expanding its precious metals production not just at a former mine site but on the foundations of its name sake gold mining community. Kirkland Lake Gold, which has more than 600 employees, is involved in a $56 million-plus capital expenditure program to increase its gold production from 50,000 ounces per year to 200,000 ounces per year by 2012.

Kirkland Lake Gold from its South Mine Complex is building on the legacy of the ground mined by five of the seven former gold operations that made Kirkland Lake famous and produced more than 24 million ounces of gold. This is the first time properties in the Kirkland Lake area have been consolidated with a single owner.

The new gold miner controls the five westernmost mine sites in the Kirkland Lake mile of gold. From west to east, the mines are Macassa, Kirkland Minerals, Tech-Hughes, Lake Shore and Wright-Hargreaves. The distance from Macassa to Wright-Hargreaves is about seven kilometres. The Sylvanite Mine, which operated from 1927 to 1961 and the Toburn Mine, which operated from 1913 to 1953, lay to the east of Kirkland Lake Gold’s consolidated property.

A national voice for the [Canadian] mining industry [educational initiatives]– by Ryan Montpellier, Gordon Peeling, Tony Andrews

April 7, 2011

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication. This joint column is from the April, 2011 issue. rnoble@canadianminingjournal.com

Ryan Montpellier is the Executive Director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR)
Gordon Peeling is the President and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada (MAC)
Tony Andrews is the Executive Director of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC)

In the February issue of the Canadian Mining Journal (CMJ), editor Russell Noble sent out “A call to all Mining Associations”, expressing the need for a national voice in addressing the looming skills shortage faced by the industry. A key question asked was “what are the associations affiliated with mining in Canada doing to help these vacancies?” We were surprised that the editor was not aware of the comprehensive, integrated approach that has been ongoing for some years now, in which industry, government and key stakeholders are very much involved on many levels. Thus the question he posed is relatively easy to answer – unlike the complex issue of the mining skills shortage.

The Mining Industry Human Resource Council’s (MiHR) latest research indicates that the Canadian mining industry will need to hire 100,000 new workers by 2020 to meet the needs from growth in employment and replacement requirements. Rapid and effective solutions are essential. Deloitte wrote an article on this very subject on page 10 of the February issue of the CMJ, with some very valid recommendations which echo aspects of MiHR’s industry-led strategy.

OMA’s So You Think You Know Mining (SYTYKM) high school video contest entries double in 2011

April 6, 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.

The Ontario Mining Association’s high school video competition So You Think You Know Mining has attracted more than 80 high-quality entries for the 2011 edition of the contest. The deadline was March 31 and the bulk of the two to three minute films were received within the 24-hour window before midnight that day.

This is more than double the number of entries received in each of the first two years of the competition 2009 and 2010. The geographic range of the source of these videos showing the benefits of mining through the eyes and talents of high school students greatly expanded. Teenagers in Mississauga, Markham, Sudbury, London, Timmins, Toronto, Collingwood, Woodstock, Pickering, Terrace Bay, Thunder Bay, Georgetown, Stratford, Clinton, Kingston, Ottawa and other centres have electronically submitted their mining stories. Ontario’s mining industry is a presence in all areas of the province and all regions of the province are represented by SYTYKM productions.

While the quantity of entries has increased, from a cursory viewing of a portion of the entries, the quality of these productions has also been greatly enhanced. The judges this year are going to have a difficult time indentifying the winners in each category – Best Overall, Best Directing, Best Writing of an Original Screenplay, Best Music, Best Comedy, Best Animation, Best video in a language other than English and the People’s Choice Award. The competition is fierce and a lot of talent and creativity is on display in these productions.