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

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak slammed what he called the identical twins of bigger government, higher taxes and deeper debt – the Liberal and New Democratic Party coalition – during a swing through Sudbury on Thursday.

Hudak repeatedly swiped at the NDP for propping up what he called the corrupt government of Premier Kathleen Wynne, charging it wasted millions of dollars when it cancelled two Toronto-area gas plants before October’s provincial election to save two Liberal MPPs’ seats.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath announced this week she would back Wynne’s spring budget, averting a June election. “This is clearly about the NDP and the Liberal MPPs putting their own seats and their own pay cheques ahead of Northern Ontario families,” Hudak said during a whistle stop at Anmar Mechanical and Electrical Contractors in Lively.

Hudak visited the Mumford Road plant to lend his support to Sudbury PC candidate Paula Peroni who this week went public with her 15-month battle with breast cancer.

The Tory leader has been pitching northern voters in recent weeks saying Northern Ontario residents are being harder hit than the rest of the province by the loss of jobs and increasing debt in Ontario. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.bloomberg.com/

LKAB is doubling spending on exploration in Sweden’s Arctic as the state-owned company targets finding a deposit to match its Kiirunavaara mine, the world’s largest contiguous body of iron ore.

LKAB will boost its exploration spending to 200 million kronor ($30 million) annually from 100 million kronor and is hiring more geologists to guide it to potential deposits, Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Aaro said in a May 20 interview.

“There’s a saying in mining, especially when you’re looking for big volume bodies, that if you’re looking for elephants you have to go to elephant land — and our part of the world is elephant land,” he said. “We now have the equipment to look at rocks deeper down but what’s under there is so far totally unknown. But, the geology is there and there could be a new Kiirunavaara mine — it will just be deeper underground.”

Sweden sits on 60 percent of Europe’s known iron ore and 2 percent of the global total. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has said that the resource ore is equivalent to what oil has meant for Norway since it was discovered in the 1960s.
LKAB, which is moving parts of the towns of Kiruna and Malmberget to ensure it can continue production in those two locations, had sales of 27 billion kronor and a profit of 8.8 billion kronor last year.

LKAB paid a dividend of 5 billion kronor to the Swedish state for 2012, equivalent to 0.6 percent of the government’s forecast income in 2013, as well as taxes of 3.77 billion kronor. Those contributions to Sweden’s budget are likely to increase as LKAB opens new mines and expands. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/politics/

WASHINGTON — Republicans at a House subcommittee hearing this week objected to a 2010 law that targets conflict minerals from Central Africa, saying it places too many regulations on U.S. businesses and hasn’t accomplished enough since it went into effect.

“Some of us may pat ourselves on the back and say, ‘Well, we’re making sure we’re not using their minerals,’ but we’re only hurting the people of the Congo,” said Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.), who called the law “a massive paperwork burden on U.S. companies.”

Profits from mining of lucrative minerals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have helped fund a brutal conflict between rebel militias and government troops that has claimed more than 5 million lives since 1998. For those who live in the conflict areas of eastern Congo, the threat of rape and mutilation is constant; both are used as weapons of war. In the isolated mining camps of the region, men and boys often work in debt bondage or outright slavery. Above ground, women and girls are even more vulnerable to the violence, and desperation forces many of them into the commercial sex trade.

The conflict minerals law originated with then-Sen. Sam Brownback, now the Republican governor of Kansas, who argued in 2008 that “with 1,500 people dying a day [in the Congo's civil war], there is no room for turning a blind eye on this matter.” Bolstered by the support of United Nations experts and human rights groups, Brownback’s plan became law two years later, as Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.investingdaily.com/

This week offered a flurry of news signifying the end of Australia’s resource boom. Of course, that doesn’t mean the mining space won’t rebound in the years ahead. Commodities are famously volatile, and the steep correction that inevitably results from overinvestment and a glut of production will itself eventually correct.

But in the near term, the sector is definitely contracting. Even the uber-wealthy are hurting. Pundits have delighted as porcine plutocrats Nathan Tinkler and Gina Rinehart watched their fortunes drop precipitously over the past year. Tinkler is now merely a former billionaire, while Rinehart’s wealth declined by a staggering AUD7 billion, to AUD22 billion, over the past 12 months.

Their plight might be more entertaining if Australia’s economy weren’t so dependent on the mining industry. The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) recently detailed a significant increase in projects being deferred or cancelled, as well as a decline in investment for exploration. Altogether, roughly AUD150 billion in projects have been delayed or cancelled over the past year.

However, there are still AUD268 billion in projects at the committed stage, which is near record-high levels. Of course, the BREE notes that 11 percent of that figure is due to cost increases. Even so, the agency projects that committed investment will fall by just AUD8 billion next year, a number that supports the Reserve Bank of Australia’s forecast that resource investment would peak this year, but that the peak would be sustained over a number of months. Read the rest of this entry »

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 most recent report by the Mining Industry Human Resource Council (MiHR) shows that Canada’s mining sector faces a human resource challenge to attract 145,000 new workers over the next decade. “Canadian Mining Industry Employment, Hiring Requirements and Available Talent 10-year Outlook” presents, in detail, views on the economic future of the industry, its workforce requirements — and shortfalls — and suggested actions to reduce the impending labour gap.

The study bases industry employment levels on three different economic forecasts. A baseline case shows the sector with cumulative hiring requirements out to 2023 to be 145,870. The expansionary case shows labour requirements of almost 200,000 workers over the same period while a contractionary case still shows cumulative hiring requirements of 116,850 for the next decade.

The MiHR report puts employment forecasts for 66 core mining occupations under the microscope. Difficulties are foreseen due to pending high retirement rates related to the industry’s demographics as well as recognition that mining must compete with other sectors to attract and retain valuable employees. It also recognizes the remote locations of many mining operations can be a barrier. Read the rest of this entry »

 http://www.laurentian.ca/content/goodman-school-of-mines

This speech was given by Bruce Jago, during the Goodman School of Mines Cocktail Reception at the King Edward Hotel, Toronto, Ontario on May 15, 2013

Thank you Dominic for your very kind introduction and thank you all for attending this celebration.

I would like extend particular thanks to Ned Goodman and Family for their generous investment in the educational future of Laurentian University under-graduate and graduate students but also in the future wealth and health of mining communities world-wide.

In addition, although I have only known Peter Crossgrove a very short time, I would like to express to him my sincere gratitude for introducing Ned Goodman to Laurentian’s President Dominic Giroux and for extending the invitation to this event to his many friends.

Many of you here today have some sort of tie to the mining industry but many of you do not. For those that do not have that tie, you should be aware that the mining industry is going through some transformative changes. We are still going discover and mine new deposits and put them bed once they are exhausted, that is still true, but the real change is going to be about changing how the next generation of mine industry workers are educated. Read the rest of this entry »

http://ca.msn.com/?rd=1&ucc=CA&dcc=CA&opt=0

Labor disruptions, flooding and infrastructure problems will mean a substantial reduction in coal exports.

Vale has announced a 30% reduction in its 2013 target for coal exports out of its Moatize mine in Mozambique. The target has been reduced from 4.9 million tonnes planned earlier to 3.4 million tonnes. The revision follows incidents of labor disruptions and heavy flooding, which rendered its railway line temporarily unusable. Infrastructural limitations in Mozambique continue to pose a challenge to Vale, hampering its ability to get the coal produced from pit to port.

The reduction in export volumes, combined with falling coking coal prices in the international market, will impact revenues negatively. However, since the coal division constitutes just 2% to 2.5% of the company’s total gross operating revenues, the overall impact is expected to be muted. On the other hand, the news exposes the fragility of Vale’s Mozambican business and the significant challenges it faces to diversify away from its iron ore business.

Infrastructure bottlenecks are the topmost concern of coal miners operating in Mozambique. Both the government and the private sector have been executing various projects to expand and build new railway lines and ports, but infrastructure will take time to reach satisfactory levels. In 2012, Vale had to cut down its initial export targets by half due to infrastructure issues. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Metals and mining are expected to be Ontario’s “star performer” on the export stage this year, with the sector that makes up 34% of the province’s exports expected to grow by 15% in 2013.

Export Development Canada’s (EDC’s) ‘Global Export Forecast for Ontario’, released on Wednesday, stated the province’s exports would get a “huge” boost this year, thanks to the double-digit surge in metal exports. EDC chief economist Peter Hall said the improvement was timely.

“Ontario mineral producers can expect to ship a lot more volume in 2013, which will help to offset lower base metal prices. Gold production will jump by over 20%, while nickel output will be more muted. Added to that, chemical manufacturing, which will spike towards the end of the year, will round out a solid sectoral performance,” Hall said.

This sector was expected to grow by about 2% in 2014. EDC expected Ontario’s total international exports to grow by 8% this year and by another 4% in 2014.

Hall pointed out that after a few years of double-digit gains, the automotive sector would slow considerably, held back by tight capacity. “A revival of US private investment will be really good for Ontario’s machinery and equipment industry this year and next,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.ctvnews.ca/

LIMA, Peru — Canadian mining companies hope that Stephen Harper’s visit to Peru will lead to better use of the billions in royalties and taxes that are sitting idle in a country where poverty is still a large problem.

Harper met mining executives Wednesday before a lengthy tete-a-tete with Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso.
The executives stressed the need for regional governments to invest the royalties and taxes in local initiatives that will help alleviate poverty that affects more than half the rural population of Peru.

Humala, too, said he wants to see better social inclusion as a result of the mining activity that dominates his country’s economy.

Regional governments are sitting on up to $4 billion in unspent royalties, money lying idle in government bank accounts.
The pressure to “publish what you pay” in Peru is part of a push from mining companies and G8 governments that is gaining momentum around the world, said Glenn Nolan, president of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Nolan was in Lima to meet Harper.

“We want to see good laws and transparency so that our (royalties) go back into the community,” Nolan said in an interview. Read the rest of this entry »

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA – Texas-based Valero Energy Corp. will invest as much as $200-million in its Quebec refinery if Enbridge Inc. proceeds with its plan to reverse its Line 9 pipeline, a project one Quebec business leader described Wednesday as critical to the province’s refining and petrochemical industry.

In a presentation to analysts, Valero chief executive officer Brian Klesse said the San Antonio-based company has committed to take “substantial volume” of light crude from Enbridge’s Line 9, which, subject to regulatory approval, will be reversed to bring oil from western North America to Montreal. Valero will then deliver the crude from Montreal to its refinery near Quebec City by company-owned ships down the St. Lawrence.

Valero plans to invest between $110-million and $200-million to overhaul its handling capacity at the refinery, including increased tankage and new crude-carrying ships, in order to increase access to North American crude. That will provide it with a competitive advantage over Atlantic basin refineries that rely on high-priced imports.

In addition to supporting Enbridge’s Line 9B reversal, Valero is expanding the 265,000-barrel-a-day refinery’s ability to receive western crude by rail and will import up to 50,000 barrels a day from Texas’s prolific Eagle Ford tight oil play. Read the rest of this entry »

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO — Moratoriums and new regulations in Quebec are sending a signal to the investment community to take their business elsewhere, Françoise Bertrand, president and CEO of Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec said Wednesday.

Ms. Bertrand was in Toronto to push her 1,200 members’ pro-pipeline message as Quebec’s minority government under Premier Pauline Marois takes a tough stance on fossil fuel development. This month, the government proposed a five-year ban on fracking and has also proposed higher royalties on mining companies.

“We are very concerned with energy,” Ms. Bertrand said in an interview, noting companies are leaving the province due to high royalty and moratorium proposals being proposed by the government.

“I think she [the Premier] was sincere when she met the Alberta Premier [Alison Redford], but I think it’s more difficult than she had envisaged in terms of delivery.”

Five Quebec refineries have closed down in the past 30 years as they slowly lost their competitive edge. Shell, meanwhile, shuttered its 161,000-barrels-per-day Montreal refinery two years ago and is in the process of dismantling the facility, snuffing out any hopes of reviving the project. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.bloomberg.com/

May 22 (Bloomberg News) – Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX), the biggest miner of the metal by sales, is considering shrinking in size as the company focuses on returns over production volumes, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Sokalsky said.

“Being more profitable is better than being bigger,” Sokalsky said yesterday at the Bloomberg Canada Economic Summit in Toronto. “If we divested of some of those smaller, higher-cost assets and came down to a suite of assets that are long-lived and lower-cost and more valuable, I think that ultimately that can be a better investment proposition.”

Gold producers are trading at their cheapest in more than a decade relative to the broader market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, as investors flee the industry amid rising mining costs, project delays and asset writedowns.

Sokalsky, who took over as CEO of the Toronto-based company 11 months ago, is reviewing growth plans and pursuing asset sales as gold trades at a two-year low and is poised to end a rally that has extended for 12 straight years.

Barrick, the owner or part owner of 27 mines, rose 2.1 percent to C$20.29 at 9:43 a.m. in Toronto. The company closed at a two-decade low on April 17, losing its position as the top gold miner by market value to Vancouver-based Goldcorp Inc. (G) last month. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.businessweek.com/

Swedes living in the Arctic town of Kiruna are packing up their belongings before their homes are bulldozed to make way for iron ore mining driven by Chinese demand.

LKAB (LKAB), Sweden’s state-owned mining company, opened a new level yesterday, more than 1 kilometer (3,281 feet) below the town, to be able to continue tapping the world’s largest contiguous body of iron ore. Many of the 18,000 who live above the deposit in the Scandinavian nation’s fourth-richest county will move a few kilometers east to accommodate the mine.

The extreme measure underscores the lengths to which governments and companies are willing to go to gain access to commodities prized by importers like China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy. And with LKAB producing 90 percent of all iron in the European Union, the willingness of Swedes to move is proving key to the whole region’s access to the metal.

“The move is of course crucial for the continuation of mining in Kiruna,” LKAB Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Aaro said in a May 20 phone interview. “Being Sweden’s seventh-largest exporter and third-biggest taxpayer, in addition to the dividend we pay the state each year, this is a national matter.” Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.economist.com/

How bad is it?

CAPE TOWN AND KINSHASA - THE business climate in Congo “is disgusting”, says an adviser to the government in Kinshasa. Any casual visitor has probably noticed. Traffic police stop cars for no reason, force their way in and refuse to leave until paid off. Tax agents arrive at company offices with seven- and eight-figure demands that—of course—can be negotiated down.

Small wonder this central African nation’s biggest business—digging in the dirt to extract precious minerals—is so dirty. An expert panel led by Kofi Annan, a former UN secretary-general, looked at five deals struck between 2010 and 2012, and compared the sums for which government-owned mines were sold with independent assessments of their value.

It found a gap of $1.36 billion, double the state’s annual budget for health and education. And these deals are just a small subset of all the bargains struck, says the report, which Mr Annan presented in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 10th.

The report highlights some puzzling details. For instance ENRC, a London-listed Kazakh mining firm, waived its rights to buy out a stake in a mining enterprise owned by Gécamines, Congo’s state miner, only to acquire it for $75m from a company owned by Dan Gertler, an Israeli businessman, which had paid $15m for it just months earlier.

Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.economist.com/

A fast-changing state leaves its mining roots behind

LAS VEGAS AND YERINGTON, NEVADA - TIM DYHR scrambles atop a mound of land in the lonely Nevada desert. “That’s where the pit mine will be,” he says, pointing towards a bland expanse of scrub. Turning his gaze to an area of desert indistinguishable from the first, he identifies the site for waste storage.

A processing facility will occupy a third plot. It is an impressive feat of visualisation. “Of course,” he chuckles, “Las Vegas used to be like this before they screwed it up.”

Mr Dyhr’s firm, Nevada Copper, hopes to build an open-pit mine near Yerington, a depressed town in the north-west of the state, though Congress must first approve the transfer of 10,000 acres of federal land. He bears no animus towards Las Vegas, a six-hour drive away. But the transformation of Nevada, and the dizzying growth of its largest city, helps explain why mining companies are feeling the political heat.

Nevada’s north, where mining is concentrated, was eclipsed by Las Vegas and the south 50 years ago. Today mining is Nevada’s ninth-biggest industry, but it remains at the core of the silver state’s identity and has been singled out for special treatment since its 1864 founding. Read the rest of this entry »