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Responsible Mining at Barrick – Barrick Gold CEO Aaron Regent’s Viewpoint

Barrick Gold Corporation [Barrick] is a leading international gold producer, with a portfolio of 26 operating mines and nine advanced exploration and development projects located on five continents, and large land positions on many prospective mineral trends.

The following viewpoint came from the Barrick Gold Corporation 2009 Responsibility Report

In 2010, Barrick is focused on meeting production and cost targets, completing projects on budget and on time, and maintaining our strong financial position. These are all very important priorities; however, how we achieve these goals will be just as important as reaching them.

Over the past year since joining Barrick, I have met with a host of stakeholders – investors, government officials, our own employees, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and suppliers. Listening to them has provided great insight into many of the broader trends that are affecting the mining industry.

We are seeing increasingly high public expectations of how companies should conduct themselves. There is also greater scrutiny of the mining sector by critics, NGOs, communities, governments, and other stakeholders, especially in developing countries. This is coupled with calls for more reporting, accountability, and legislative oversight of the mining sector. We see similar trends in project financing, where a major part of the discussion now focuses on social and environmental issues.

Mining, as an extractive industry, has a significant impact on the communities and environments where we operate. In order to mine, we must disturb land and use both energy and water. Our operations can also have a social impact on local communities, for example through resettlement or shifting social dynamics. I believe our efforts and innovative approaches in managing and mitigating these impacts are making all the difference, as we generate meaningful benefits for our host communities.

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[Barrick Gold’s]Aaron Regent: A New-generation CEO – by Globe and Mail Reporter Brenda Bouw (Originally Published December 18, 2010)

Brenda Bouw is the mining reporter for the Globe and Mail, 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. This article was orginally published December 18, 2010.
When Aaron Regent walks into Ki, a modern Japanese restaurant in the heart of Bay Street, amid a cluster of other dark-suited businessmen during a recent lunch hour rush, his presence is immediately noted.

Within seconds, the hostess greets him as “Mr. Regent” and whisks him and his party to his usual table, a quiet corner booth located alongside a calming rock and marble water feature.

Ki is a regular lunch spot for Mr. Regent, in part because it’s located inside Brookfield Place, the same downtown Toronto office tower that is home to the head office of Barrick, where he celebrates his two-year anniversary as president and chief executive officer next month. The Irish-born executive has spent much of his career around this particular square mile of prime real estate, working either at Brookfield Asset Management (where he was, most recently, co-head of its vast infrastructure group) or within the nexus of companies affiliated with it.

So when he was offered the Barrick job by legendary founder Peter Munk, the physical move was easy – he merely had to change floors. That is where the simple part ended, however.

Barrick is a complicated beast with interests in 25 mines scattered across five continents, each with its own challenges.

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Why Sudbury is An Unlikely Magnet for Global Education – by Globe and Mail Columnist Adam Radwanski (Originally Published August 21, 2010)

Adam Radwanski is the Queen’s Park columnist for the Globe and Mail, 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. This article was orginally published August 21, 2010.

International students are increasingly attracted to the Big Nickel to study, but the real problem is getting them to stay after graduation

Peter Luk admits it’s not an easy sell.

Twice a year, the dean of Laurentian University’s management program travels to China in an attempt to persuade students and their families that Sudbury is the place for them. For most, Canada ranks below several other countries as their choice of where to study abroad. A small northern Ontario city known for nickel mining isn’t even on the radar.

And yet, with students drawn by everything from smaller class sizes to the prospect of a more “Canadian” experience than they’d get in a multicultural metropolis such as Toronto, Mr. Luk is finding takers. In 2008, his first year at Laurentian after nearly three decades at Toronto’s Ryerson University, he recruited four Chinese students. The next year, it was eight. This year, it was 25.

The trend is reflected across campus. With an aggressive recruitment strategy driven by an ambitious new administration, Laurentian reports that it received 952 international applications in 2010, more than double the total from three years earlier.

All this should warm the heart of Dalton McGuinty, who has said he wants to increase international enrolment at the province’s universities by 50 per cent. But it will also test just what the Ontario Premier’s push for foreign students really means, and what its legacy will be.

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The Northern Miner 2010 “Mining Persons of the Year” Shawn Ryan and Cathy Wood Renew Yukon Gold Rush – by Gwen Preston (December 16, 2010)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. This article is reproduced with permission of The Northern Miner and was first posted on their website on December 16, 2010.

Fourteen years ago Shawn Ryan and Cathy Wood were tromping around British Columbia, picking wild mushrooms. They loved the lifestyle, in large part because of its gold rush-style mentality: “You’d have a thousand people in the bush and half of them would migrate, overnight, on a rumour of a sweet spot,” says Ryan.

But the couple were expecting their first child. Ryan tried to make the line of work more stable by convincing the Yukon government to endorse mushroom picking as an agricultural program, but was turned down. Devastated, he turned back to an old skill – staking mineral claims in Ontario – and he made $10,000 in a week.

“So I said to Cathy, ‘Let’s go back into exploration,'” Ryan recalls. They decided to focus on the Yukon.

Ten years later, the couple optioned a piece of ground in the Dawson Range to Underworld Resources. Two years after that, Kinross Gold swept in and bought Underworld for $138 million. The deal triggered a staking rush around the White Gold gold project that is still going strong.

Ryan and Wood are most famous for the Underworld discovery but their prospecting efforts and successes in the Yukon go far beyond one deal.

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Copper’s big comeback [Quadra FNX Derek White Interview] by Toronto Star Business Reporter Lisa Wright (Originally published December 19, 2010)

Lisa Wright is a business reporter with the Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion. This article was originally published December 19, 2010.

 “Underneath the nickel contact zone [in Sudbury] are these amazing copper deposits. And
when I say amazing, I mean three times the grade of the Congo. These are high, high grades.
Generally speaking in copper mining, a big open pit mine with 1 per cent would be a world
class, great type of deposit. We’re mining on average 9 per cent but sometimes up
to 20 per cent.” (Quadra FNX Derek White – Dec/19/10)

With prices soaring, Canadian miners like Quadra FNX are back on the radar

There’s an old saw that over every bull market is a copper roof – and beneath every bear market is a copper trough.

In other words, the price of copper is a reliable barometer of market strength.

The industrial metal is considered one of the best signals of economic activity since it’s the bloodline of electrical conductivity and a key component in all construction.

Copper is soaring to the rooftop again with the red-hot base metal hitting a record $4.18 (U.S.) a pound in New York last week. The last time it came this close to a record high was just before the economy hit the skids in 2008, which then promptly dragged it down to a lowly $1 a pound.

The high price is not great news for big buyers like China. Nor is it nice for churches, cemeteries and cars, which have become targets lately for their scrap copper content, which thieves sell on the Asian black market as a substitute for the expensive stuff.

But it bodes well for copper mining companies like Quadra FNX Mining Ltd., which formed after the merger of Vancouver’s Quadra and Toronto’s FNX last May to become a leading producer of the rusty red metal.

The Toronto miner hopes to capitalize on continuing high copper prices with its coveted Sierra Gorda site in northern Chile, which will cost an estimated $2.5 billion to build into a mine. The growing firm has many suitors knocking on its door to get a piece of this potentially large copper development, which could be up and running by early 2014.

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Ring of Fire’s Noront Resources Brings Santa and Hockey Stars to First Nation Community of Webequie

Todd Hlushko with Webequie youth during Noront hockey clinic - photo by Kaitlyn Ferris
 
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.
 
 
For video footage of the Noront Reources Christmas trip to Webequie: http://www.mikawaa.com/christmascard2010/

 

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

Ontario Mining Association member Noront Resources employed a little magic to fly in Santa bearing gifts and two former National Hockey League stars to Webequie last week.  Webequie, which has no year round road connections and a population of 800, is located 540 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.

“This is the second year for the Noront Christmas Cheer Event in which every child in the community under the age of 12 receives a gift,” said Leanne Hall, Vice President Human Resources and “special assistant” to Noront’s Santa.  “We started in 2009 giving gifts to children instead of sending cards to help make the children feel special and this year we provided 200 gifts in Webequie.”

It is estimated that $155 million have been invested in mineral exploration in
the Ring of Fire area. In Canada, mining is the largest private sector employer
of Aboriginals, who comprise 7.5% of the mining workforce — up from 3.6% in 2006.
– Ontario Mining Association – December 22, 2010

Former NHL players Todd Harvey and Todd Hlushko came with Santa on the flight from Thunder Bay.  They spoke with students and stressed the “stay in school and believe in yourself” message, signed autographs and showed evidence of their sporting success.  Mr. Harvey, who was born in Hamilton, won gold medals in 1994 and 1995 at the World Junior Hockey championships and Mr. Hlushko, who was born in Guelph, won the Olympic silver medal in hockey in 1994.  As well as playing for different NHL teams, Mr. Hlushko played for a number of years for teams in Germany.

Todd Hlushko and Todd Harvey with Webequie child - Photo by Engage Learning

 

“I had never visited a community like Webequie before,” said Mr. Harvey.  “It was an outdoor rink and we had to shovel off the snow before skating.  It was old school, like pond hockey, and through the day we probably had a couple of hundred kids on the ice.  We ran clinics concentrating on skating, stick handling and shooting and also had a community skate.”

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On The Brink – How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect [Canadian] Post-Secondary Education – Executive Summary (February/2009 Policy Paper)

The Educational Policy Institute is an international, non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with offices in Winnipeg, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. The mission of the Educational Policy Institute is to “expand educational opportunity for low-income and other historically-underrepresented students through high-level research and analysis.”

The Report is available here: On the Brink: How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect Post-Secondary Education

The institutions that will prosper will be ones that can fundamentally
restructure their costs and develop major new revenue streams, such as overseas
education (that is, not just bringing students to Canada, but the much tougher job of
bringing Canadian education abroad). The challenges of such an environment are great,
and institutions need to consider their responses to it as soon as possible.

Executive Summary

With the global recession in full effect, post‐secondary education in Canada is about to face some very significant challenges. The purpose of this report is to outline the likely main effects of this global recession on the Canadian post‐secondary education (PSE) sector, as well as suggest a series of measures that governments can take to help institutions survive the worst of the crisis.

The most immediate challenges facing the system over the coming years include:

• Decreasing Institutional Revenues – In the short‐term, with global markets in decline, university endowments will produce lower levels of revenues in the foreseeable future. The lack of endowment revenue will impact discretionary income at institutions and force institutions to allocate resources more strategically. In the medium‐term, as governments inevitably try to bring their budgets back into balance, PSE institutions will be hard‐pressed to maintain their current funding levels to post‐secondary institutions. Cuts – possibly quite significant ones – are highly likely starting in 2011.

• Increasing Institutional Costs – Institutional defined‐benefit pension plans have also been greatly affected by the financial crisis; PSE institutions will have to spend more to cover their deficits. Faculty and staff who have seen significant losses in their RRSPs will also be less likely to retire; this means that institutions will have to pay more for older, more expensive staff instead of replacing them (as they do on a regular cycle) with younger, less expensive labour.

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News Release: Educational Policy Institute Releases Report on the Recession’s Impact on [Canadian] Post-Secondary Education (February 25, 2009)

The Educational Policy Institute is an international, non-profit think tank dedicated to the study of educational opportunity. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with offices in Winnipeg, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. The mission of the Educational Policy Institute is to “expand educational opportunity for low-income and other historically-underrepresented students through high-level research and analysis.”

The Report is available here: On the Brink: How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect Post-Secondary Education

TORONTO, ON, February 25, 2009 — Warning that post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada is about to head back towards conditions last seen in the mid-1990s, the newest publication from the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), On the Brink: How the Recession of 2009 Will Affect Post-Secondary Education, takes an in-depth look at the profound affects the recession will have on both revenues and expenditures in the PSE sector. The report’s authors suggest how governments and institutions might respond in order to not only survive this crisis, but perhaps even be in a position to thrive once the recovery arrives.

“It is clear that post-secondary education is facing difficult times as a result of this recession,” said report co-author and EPI Vice-President Alex Usher. “There is, however, still time to save the system from decline if university and college presidents and premiers react quickly and make wise choices on policy and budgeting.”

The report briefly outlines the key effects of the recession on Canada’s system of post-secondary education:

-The collapse in equities affects institutions’ endowments and pension liabilities thus reducing income and increasing expenditure in the short-term;

-The real-economy recession will create new patterns of post-secondary attendance (rising college and graduate school enrolment; falling apprenticeship registrations) which will both raise institutional costs;

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Ontario Report: The Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector – Executive Summary and Preamble

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario.  The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: The Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Ontario university sector is already somewhat differentiated. A policy decision to increase the differentiation of the postsecondary system brings the following benefits:

• Higher quality teaching and research programs
• More student choice with easier inter‐institution transfer and mobility
• Greater institutional accountability
• A more globally competitive system
• A more financially sustainable system

Ontario’s postsecondary system can transition seamlessly and incrementally to greater differentiation with the judicious and strategic use of funding strategies already familiar to government. This transition to a more differentiated university sector is guided by principles including:

• Equal value on the teaching and research functions of universities
• Forging a contemporary relationship between Ontario’s colleges and universities
• Linking the differentiation policy to funding decisions
• More effective use of multi‐year accountability agreements and performance indicators to evaluate whether universities are meeting expected goals and targets

A roadmap is provided indicating how the government can advance the current university system to a more differentiated one. The cornerstone of this transition is a comprehensive agreement between each university and MTCU identifying the expectations and accountabilities of each institution including its expected enrolment and student mix, its priority teaching and research programs and areas for future growth and development.

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Time for Ontario Universities to Specialize in Programs They Do Best: [Ontario Provincial] Report – by Ciara Byrne (October 26, 2010)

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario.  The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: TheThe Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

Ciara Byrne, The Canadian Press: Tuesday, October 26, 2010

TORONTO – Ontario universities should play to their strengths instead of trying to be everything to everyone, the head of an advisory body on higher learning said Tuesday, as he called for schools to focus on the programs they do best.

A report commissioned by Ontario’s deputy post-secondary education minister by the Higher Education Quality Council is calling on universities to pick a specialty and stick with it, meaning Specialty U could be the future in Ontario.

“You will have the institutions doing what they do best, not trying to do what everybody else is doing,” council president Harvey Weingarten said Tuesday.

Tough economic times and a crush of students pouring into universities has schools spreading themselves too thin, Weingarten said. They need to shift their focus if they hope to be competitive.

Weingarten said the government should coax universities to run specialized programs by offering additional funding for those who do it well.

He has recommended the Ontario government start the transformation by asking schools in Toronto to distinguish themselves from one another.

In July, Deborah Newman the deputy minister of Training, Colleges and Universities asked the council to explore whether a differentiated set of universities would improve the overall performance of the system.

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Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario News Release: University Report: Strengthen System Quality, Sustainability and Accountability – October 26, 2010

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario.  The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: TheThe Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 – While several of Ontario’s 20 universities are internationally ranked, pressures on the postsecondary system are palpable. Increased enrollment is jeopardizing the range and quality of programs while a changing labour market demands postsecondary credentials. How can Ontario’s universities improve access, quality and international competitiveness while ensuring a system that is both sustainable and accountable?

A new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) says universities should set measureable goals based on their strengths, and the provincial government should base new funding on whether those goals are met. The results, according to The Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector, would produce a postsecondary system that is more cohesive, more fluid, more sustainable and higher quality.

HEQCO president and CEO Harvey Weingarten, with report co-author and HEQCO research director Fiona Deller, embraced the provincial government’s challenge to explore whether a more strongly differentiated set of universities would help improve the overall performance and sustainability of the system, and help Ontario compete internationally.  With input from student groups and university and college leaders, the report builds on HEQCO’s research and best thinking on the postsecondary sector.

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Timmins Unhappy With Canadian Hall of Fame Gold Discoverers Exclusions – by Gregory Reynolds

This column was originally published in the Late Summer, 2010 issue of Highgrader Magazine which is committed to serve the interests of northerners by bringing the issues, concerns and culture of the north to the world through the writings and art of award-winning journalists as well as talented freelance artists, writers and photographers.

Timmins Owes its Very Existence to Six Men Not Three!

Timmins city clerk Jack Watson says with a note of bitterness in his voice:
“We submitted all six and were upset with the decision. We appealed but lost.”

The community that calls itself The City With a Heart of Gold has every right to the motto because literally the ground beneath it, the heart of Mother Earth, has arteries of gold.

There has been gold production in Timmins continuously since 1910 and it will continue for  many more decades. There is no reason for a thriving modern city to be located in the middle of nowhere; there is no port to support international trade, no junction of railways, no meeting of highways that is a destination point.

Yet, Timmins is in the midst of a four-year celebration of 100 years of history and achievements.

No achievement was greater than the exploits of these six men: Sandy McIntyre, Hans Buttner, Harry Preston, John (Jack) Wilson, Benny Hollinger and Alex Gillies.

They discovered in 1909 the gold deposits that became the Big Three producers in Canadian mining history, the Dome (1910-still in production), the Hollinger (1910-1968) and the McIntyre (1912-1988).

Yet earlier this year the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame inducted just three of the six into its illustrious membership. Wilson and Harry Preston found the gold outcrop that was to become the Dome or as its workers fondly called it, The Big Dome. Only Wilson made into the Hall.

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China Overseas Investment Fair Speech – by Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese – November 3, 2010

China’s urbanisation rate is still only 45 per cent, with 50,000 new skyscrapers – we believe – needed by 2025. This urbanisation of the rural population is the largest peacetime mass migration in the history of the world. But we should not forget that we have India, Brazil and many other countries following this development pathway. While growth in China may eventually moderate, other countries will take up the slack. Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese – November 3, 2010

Global Resources Distribution: Strategic Options for Resources Investment

Speaker: Tom Albanese, Chief Executive Officer

Introduction

Thank you for your welcome. I am very happy to be back in China my eighth visit this year, and it is an honour to speak here today.

I would like to take the opportunity to talk about future developments and supply challenges for major global industrial commodities and China’s role within this. In addition, I plan to cover the important role technology and innovation will play in the future of the mining and minerals sector.

Global demand for minerals

Let me now give an overview of global minerals demand and how that affects both our business and the industry. Since the industrial revolution, production and urbanisation has spread progressively around the world. The global consumption of minerals has grown in support of this economic transformation.

Over the last hundred years, we’ve seen average annual growth in global minerals demand of something like 3.5 per cent – roughly equivalent to a doubling of demand every 20 years. In particular, demand growth has risen dramatically for aluminium.

This trend suggests that over the next 20 years we expect to see an extra 3 billion people with incomes reaching $15,000. In contrast, it took 200 years for the first billion people to reach this goal.  Substantial quantities of minerals will be needed to achieve such a transformation in living standards.

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Ontario Government News Release: Investment, Chromite Top Agenda For Premier In Hong Kong – November 3, 2010

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

McGuinty Meets with Chairman Li Ka-shing and CEO Eric Huang

Leaders from Hong Kong’s business community met Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and ministers Sandra Pupatello and Michael Chan to discuss investment opportunities in Ontario.

Premier McGuinty spoke at a reception hosted by the Canada-Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce. Guests included leaders in mining and financial services. McGuinty credited Ontario’s strong financial services sector for helping it weather the global recession better than most other economies. He also talked about the government’s plans to develop the Ring of Fire, an area in Northern Ontario that contains one of the world’s largest chromite deposits.

Guests also included representatives from Hong Kong universities who came to learn about Ontario’s plans to boost international enrolment in postsecondary institutions by 50 per cent over the next five years.

Earlier, Premier McGuinty met with Li Ka-shing, Chairman of Cheung Kong Limited and Hutchison Whampoa. The Premier and Mr. Li discussed Ontario as a growing North American location for new investment and trade. McGuinty also met with Eric Huang, CEO of CITIC Merchant Bank.

Premier McGuinty also honoured Canadian soldiers at Sai Wan War Cemetery, resting place for soldiers who died in the defence of Hong Kong during the Second World War. McGuinty laid a wreath to honour the over 550 Canadian soldiers who died, 22 of whom were from Ontario.

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