26 November 2010

Rio Tinto has announced a key strategic partnership in Canada, teaming with world leading researchers to create the Rio Tinto Centre for Underground Mine Construction.

The new Centre will be based at the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) in Sudbury, Ontario, and will focus on innovative rapid mine construction and ground control for mining at depth.

Rio Tinto is investing C$10 million over five years in the centre, completing a suite of five global long term Rio Tinto research centres around the world.

The work with CEMI will assist Rio Tinto’s development of new excavation systems through The Mine of the Future™ programme, focusing on significantly improving the construction and operation of underground mines.

As part of this programme, Rio Tinto will conduct a full scale performance verification trial in 2012 at Northparkes’ copper and gold mine in New South Wales, Australia, as the first of three new underground excavation systems. Read the rest of this entry »

Dick DeStefano is the Executive Director of Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA). destefan@isys.ca

Summary: SAMSSA looks at the supply of industrial land in the face of complaqints that the City is not “Business Friendly.” Information suppled by the Greater Sudbury Development Corproation suggests the city is not supporting industrial development well.

Since its inception in 2003, SAMSSA has advocated for upgrading infrastructure and services in present and future industrial parks for its members. Recently, a number of complaints were forwarded to the SAMSSA office after an article in the Sudbury Star highlighted one company’s complaint about having to pay for what it believes are fundamental services (sewer, water and paved roads) covered by their signifance commercial taxes.

This article and subsequent SAMSSA News Updates to members triggered a number of requests for our office to investigate what was happening especially in the potential for upgraded roads, water and sewer on both Fielding Road and Elisabella Street.

The Greater Sudbury Development Corporation (GSDC) were very helpful and provided an ongoing study that is looking into these issues.

It is not uncommon in election year to hear that a another study will look at this problem. However, past experience has proven that once a new Council is elected, this study will lose out to other projects because of costs or lack of commitment. There are more votes won by paving high traffic roads than supporting the millions of dollars needed in an industrial park upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists. jcumming@northernminer.com This editorial is reproduced with permission of The Northern Miner and is from the November 22-28, 2010 issue.

BHP Billiton formally withdrew its hostile, US$40-billion cash offer for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan on Monday after the Canadian government had rejected it two weeks earlier on the grounds that it did not provide a “net benefit” to Canadians, heeding the loud protestations of Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and a groundswell of opposition in the province.

Of paramount concern to the provincial government was BHP Billiton’s indifference to the long-established Canpotex export-sales cartel, and the company’s willingness to drive down potash prices as it maximized mine output.

The federal government had left open for BHP a 30-day window to improve its bid, but that was just a formality, as BHP had already made many substantive concessions relating to increased taxes, vows to maintain employment levels, and commitments to remain in Canpotex for five years, and to centre its potash business in Saskatchewan.

Clearly, BHP Billiton execs spent too much time with their noses in their spreadsheets and were unable to grasp the enduring strength of Prairie populism in Canada. And BHP paid a full price for its lesson, tallying US$350 million in transaction costs for the failed bid, of which US$250 million will be recognized in the half year ending Dec. 31. Read the rest of this entry »

Mining Weekly is South Africa’s premier source of weekly news on mining developments in Africa’s most important industry. Mining Weekly provides in-depth coverage of mining projects and the personalities reshaping the mining industry. In order to advance Mining Weekly’s objective of positioning itself as a leading global provider of mining news, a full-time correspondent is based in Toronto, Canada and another in Perth, Australia. 

The website provides real time news reportage through originated written, video and audio material. Liezel Hill is Mining Weekly’s North American Deputy Editor.

For a detailed analysis by Liezel Hill on Vale’s recent commitment to invest $10 billion in its Canadian operations, please visit: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/vale-talks-up-its-canadian-investment-plans-2010-11-26

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. This editorial is reproduced with permission of The Northern Miner and is from the November 8-14, 2010 issue.

The last week of October was a satisfying one for Canadian miners, with Canada’s parliament voting to defeat the anti-mining Bill C-300 by an unsettlingly close 140-to-134 margin.

As Canadian miners are well aware, Bill C-300 was a private member’s bill sponsored by backbench Liberal Member of Parliament John McKay, representing Toronto’s suburban Scarborough riding.

Superficially innocuous, Bill C-300, had it become law, would have given the federal ministers of foreign affairs and international trade new responsibility to hold Canadian resource companies accountable for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in developing countries by submitting annual reports to the House of Commons and Senate for review.

The ministries could then sanction delinquent companies by keeping money from lending arms such as the Export Development Canada and the Canada Pension Plan.

However, the bill was so naively constructed that, as law, it would have led to a flood of frivolous, obstructionist and defamatory complaints coming in from all corners of the world from anti-capitalist agitators, shakedown artists and covert foreign mining competitors. Read the rest of this entry »

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. This editorial is reproduced with permission of The Northern Miner and is from the November 1-7, 2010 issue.

BHP Billiton’s $40-billion hostile bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan entered a critical period in late October, as the broadly free market-friendly Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and his government set aside years of “Saskatchewan-is-open-for-business” talk and came out strongly against the deal.

Wall said the deal fails to provide a “net benefit” to the people of Saskatchewan and Canada in three key areas: jobs and investment, Canadian control of an important Canadian resource, and provincial revenues. He also voiced concern over the fate of the Canpotex potash-export marketing arrangement if BHP succeeds in its bid.

“Do we want to add PotashCorp to that list of once-proud Canadian companies that are now under foreign control?” asked Wall, who cast doubt on the ability of federal authorities to enforce restrictions should approval be granted with specific conditions.

“In the past decade, promises about maintaining jobs, corporate headquarters and future investment have all been broken,” said Wall. “We simply cannot take that risk with this valuable resource that belongs to the people of Saskatchewan.” Read the rest of this entry »