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The inevitable Trudeau recession will ravage the West and the middle class – by Diane Francis (Financial Post – December 9, 2019)

https://business.financialpost.com/

Trudeau has degraded the value of two major assets — our relationship with the U.S. and our natural resources — to the detriment of all Canadians

The “hot mic” video of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mocking President Donald Trump behind his back at the NATO conference is a major diplomatic blunder.

I’m no fan of Trump’s either, and Trudeau certainly found a ready audience for his ridicule, but this is school boy stuff, unbecoming the leaders of any of these countries. And there is no excuse. Trudeau should know by now that everything is on the record whether there’s a “hot mic” or not.

More importantly, he should know, as Canada’s Prime Minister, that his principal foreign affairs job is to look after Canada’s relationship with the United States. In fact, like it or lump it, good relations with the U.S. is one of Canada’s two most important assets. The other is the country’s spectacular resource endowment.

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SAMSSA looks to expand, bids DeStefano farewell – by Colleen Romaniuk (Sudbury Northern Life – December 6, 2019)

https://www.sudbury.com/

The Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) held their AGM on Dec. 4 at Dynamic Earth

A Sudbury-based mining supply industry group has its eyes on pan-Northern and global expansion. The Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) held their annual general meeting on Dec. 4 at Dynamic Earth.

In welcoming members from North Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie, and Thunder Bay, the association reaffirmed its intention to support Northern Ontario businesses on a global scale and to generate leads for their member companies.

SAMSSA is currently working to increase their visibility both in the North and around the world. They’ve recently initiated an in-coming and outgoing export program and completed a trade mission to Nevada. From Jan. 12 to 17, 2020, SAMSSA is planning another trade mission to Santiago, Chile. Members are being encouraged to register to explore the market towards establishing a footprint on the ground.

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Meet the Laurentian Elite, the mediocre masters of Canada – by John Weissenberger (National Post – December 6, 2019)

https://nationalpost.com/

Our self-declared social and political elite is like the air we breathe or the proverbial water around fish; it seems so natural as to be unnoticeable

National institutions and dominant elites can fail when they don’t accommodate change, or become severely detached from the lives of average citizens. In Canada, this has been the rule rather than the exception for the past 50 years, and the Laurentian Elite is largely to blame.

But what is, and who are, the Laurentian Elite? How can they be so important if they don’t even have a Wikipedia page? Our self-declared, dominant Canadian social and political elite is like the air we breathe or the proverbial water around fish; it seems so natural as to be unnoticeable.

Journalist and author John Ibbitson coined the term in a seminal 2011 article, later expanded into a book, The Big Shift. He defined the “Laurentians” as “the political, academic, cultural, media and business elites” of central Canada.

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The Agenda with Steve Paikin Interviews Charlotte Gray about her new book – A Millionaire’s Murder Mystery (December 2, 2019)

https://www.tvo.org/ Sir Harry Oakes, a major figure in 19th-and-early 20th century northern Ontario, made millions in mining. He was mysteriously murdered in the Caribbean in 1943, with no clues as to the culprit. The Agenda explores Oakes’s intriguing life, and the mark he made on Kirkland Lake with historian Charlotte Gray, who chronicled his activities …

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RPT-COLUMN-Nickel bubble deflates but a bear trap may be opening – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – December 5, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – The nickel price bubble is slowly deflating but bears would be advised to tread carefully with a sharp fall in LME inventory threatening a repeat of the time-spread turbulence that rocked the London market in late September.

London Metal Exchange (LME) nickel surged to a five-year high of $18,850 on Sept. 2, from $12,000 per tonne at the start of July, as Indonesia brought forward to a ban on exports of nickel ore to January.

But the exuberance has dissipated with short-term fund money pulling out to leave LME three-month metal around $13,100 per tonne currently. While nickel may be on the electric vehicle (EV) investment grid because of its use in lithium-ion batteries, an old driver is reasserting itself – namely the state of the stainless steel market.

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Eric Sprott says he’ll vote for Kirkland Lake deal to acquire Detour Gold – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – December 5, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Eric Sprott says he intends to vote for Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd’s controversial $4.9-billion takeover of Detour Gold Corp.

Initially undecided on the merits of the deal, Mr. Sprott says he came around after studying up on Detour, and after reflecting on Kirkland’s plans for the struggling low grade miner.

Kirkland has plans to eventually cut Detour’s costs to US$800 an ounce from US$1,100, and materially boost its production. “I think it would be a pretty good cash generating machine,” Mr. Sprott said of Detour.

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Trump panel urges U.S. to buy more uranium from American miners – by Ari Natter (BNN/Bloomberg News – December 4, 2019)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

A White House task force is recommending that President Donald Trump direct the federal government buy more uranium from domestic producers, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The purchase of uranium by the U.S. Defense Department is among the recommendations being made by the U.S. Nuclear Fuel Working Group, comprised of cabinet level and other high-ranking officials, according to the people, who requested anonymity to discuss non-public deliberations.

The task force was established to study ways to revive the U.S. uranium mining industry.

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New boss at Vale – Dino Otranto – favours improved safety and being more competitive – by Len Gillis (Northern Ontario Business – December 5, 2019)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

“We have an abundance of ore here, one of the top three nickel-copper orebodies
in the entire world, right here. We haven’t really scratched
the surface of the potential of that orebody,” Dino Otranto said.

Dino Otranto, the new man at the helm of Vale Base Metals in Canada, said he is more than pleased with the level of commitment from Vale employees. He was equally overwhelmed at the level of innovation and technology being used to keep the company successful. Just as important, he said, is the critical need to be more competitive.

Otranto, who has a blue chip mining résumé stretching back to the early 2000s, is the new chief operating officer for Vale’s North Atlantic Operations and Asian Refineries. Prior to that, he was the company’s chief technology officer based in Toronto.

As he spoke recently from his office in Sudbury, Otranto said he had no plan to shake things up when he moved into his role earlier in 2019.

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Violent Protests Shut Down Key Rio Tinto Mine in South Africa – by Felix Njini and David Stringer (Bloomberg News – December 4, 2019)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

Violent protests, often characterized by deadly shootings and barricades of burning tires, are making it harder for the world’s biggest mining companies to operate in South Africa.

Rio Tinto Group shuttered its Richards Bay Minerals unit on Wednesday and paused a $463 million expansion project amid escalating violence in surrounding communities that led to an employee being shot and injured. The stoppage will further sap investor sentiment in a country where business confidence is near the lowest level in two decades.

The freezing of the Zulti South project comes as President Cyril Ramaphosa battles to stimulate growth and retain the nation’s last investment-grade credit rating. South Africa’s economy contracted for a second quarter this year in the three months through September as farming, mining and factory output slumped.

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Gold miners flash the cash in biggest deal binge in a decade – by Jeff Lewis and Zandi Shabalala (Reuters U.S. – December 4, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

TORONTO/LONDON (Reuters) – Gold miners look set to extend a deal spree after notching transactions worth a record $30.5 billion this year, according to data, the biggest M&A binge since bullion prices peaked nearly a decade ago.

Led by top producers Newmont Goldcorp Corp and Barrick Gold Corp, miners are bulking up to replace dwindling reserves and win back investors who in recent years shunned the sector because of disappointing returns. This year has seen 348 deals worth more than $30.5 billion, including net debt, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

That is up from $10.8 billion last year and surpasses a previous high of $25.7 billion set in 2010, the data show. Gold topped $1,900 per ounce in 2011 and currently trades around $1,484, after hitting a six-year high in September.

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Newmont’s new Borden Mine futuristic – by Adella Harding (Elko Daily Free Press – December 4, 2019)

https://elkodaily.com/

Newmont Goldcorp’s new Borden Mine in Canada has the latest in digital mining technologies, low-carbon energy vehicles, safety controls and processes for underground operations. The company calls Borden the “mine of the future.”

Newmont Goldcorp’s president and chief executive officer, Tom Palmer, said that “Borden’s electric underground fleet will eliminate diesel particulate matter from the underground environment and lower greenhouse gas emissions. This will help reduce energy costs, protect employee health and minimize impacts to the environment.”

Borden has a fleet of roughly 35 electric vehicles “that you’d expect in an underground hard-rock mine, including bolters, tractors, personnel carriers, jumbos, loaders, a grader and a range of utility vehicles,” said Omar Jabara, group executive for public relations and executive communications for Colorado-based Newmont.

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Cliffs to buy AK Steel in $1.1 billion stock deal – by Jim Lovrien (Deluth News Tribune – December 3, 2019)

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/

Cleveland-Cliffs, which owns several Minnesota and Michigan iron ore mines and taconite plants, will buy steelmaker AK Steel in a $1.1 billion stock deal, the companies announced Tuesday morning.

The move allows Cliffs to own AK Steel’s existing blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces, and supply the furnaces with its own iron ore pellets. Cliffs had long sold its pellets to other steelmakers.

That “vertically integrated steel company” model is used by U.S. Steel, which mines taconite and produces iron ore pellets at Keetac in Keewatin and Minntac in Mountain Iron that then supplies its blast furnaces throughout the U.S., and ArcelorMittal, which supplies its Indiana Harbor blast furnaces with pellets from its mines and plants at Hibtac in Hibbing and Minorca in Virginia.

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Vale to exit New Caledonia, eyes Indonesia to boost nickel output – by Eric Onstad and Barbara Lewis (Reuters U.S. – December 4, 2019)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vale SA plans to exit its troubled New Caledonia assets but still aims to ramp up nickel output ahead of rising demand for electric batteries, executives said on Wednesday.

The planned divestment of nickel operations in New Caledonia comes after Vale said last month it would write down the mine and incur a non-cash impairment charge of about $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter.

A year ago, the world’s top nickel producer unveiled plans to invest $500 million in the mine after failing to find a partner for the operation.

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OPINION: Is Canada’s economy keeping up with the Joneses? Unfortunately, the answer is no – by David Williams and Jock Finlayson (Globe and Mail – December 5, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

David Williams is vice-president of policy at the Business Council of British Columbia. Jock Finlayson is the council’s executive vice-president and chief policy officer.

It’s been about 12 years since the peak of the last business cycle in 2007. And as the 43rd federal Parliament sits for its first session, it’s a good time to reflect on how Canada’s economy has performed compared with other advanced countries over the current business cycle. Has Canada “kept up with the Joneses?”

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Canadians have seen a substantial deterioration in living standards relative to peer countries since 2007, according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data. This is primarily because other countries have increased their productivity by more than Canada.

Canada’s peer group – “the Joneses” – includes the other Group of Seven countries, namely the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain. Australia and New Zealand are added because they have resource-based economies like Canada with similar institutions and well-educated work forces. Finally, we can also compare Canada to the average performances of the OECD, the G7 and the Euro area.

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