May 13, 2011 – Republic of Mining

Ontario MNDMF Minister Hon. Michael Gravelle’s Keynote Speech to Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities Conference – (Timmins, Ontario – May 13, 2011)

May 15, 2011May 13, 2011

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Thank you for your kind introduction; it is certainly a pleasure to be here! I would like to begin by thanking the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) for inviting me here today.

I commend the FONOM organizing committee for putting together a full and interesting slate of seminars on a wide range of topics for delegates.

FONOM provides us all – municipal leaders and representatives, provincial politicians and civil servants – with an invaluable opportunity to meet and share in a constructive dialogue about promoting northern community economic development.

Your conference theme – “Golden Past, A Brighter Future” – is a very appropriate point of departure for my remarks today. I think it aptly defines our government’s hope and expectations in the comprehensive approach we are taking in advancing prosperity in Northern Ontario.

Shooting Gold Diggers at [Barrick Gold] African Mine Seen Amid Record Prices – by Cam Simpson (Bloomberg Markets Magazine – April 2011)

May 13, 2011

Bloomberg Markets magazine brings the inside view of professional investing with unparalleled access to the most influential people in global business and finance.

Security guards and federal police have allegedly shot and killed people scavenging the waste rock at Barrick Gold’s North Mara mine in Tanzania

(Bloomberg) — Barrick Gold Corp.’s North Mara mine near the Tanzanian border with Kenya disgorges millions of pounds of waste rock each week, piled high around communities where almost half the people live on less than 33 cents a day.

Children in school uniforms scurry across the rubble to reach their classes. Women with water pails atop their heads skirt past the heaps. The piles grow as the longest bull market for gold in at least 90 years pushes Barrick, the world’s largest miner of the precious metal, to increase production.

Villagers, too, are hunting the ore on the North Mara land that their ancestors worked for decades, sometimes paying with their lives.

Security guards and federal police allegedly have shot and killed people scavenging the gold-laced rocks to sell for small amounts of cash, according to interviews with 28 people, including victims’ relatives, witnesses, local officials and human-rights workers.

A golden opportunity [Northern Ontario mining] – by Jasmine Budak (Maclean’s – November 1, 2010)

May 13, 2011

Maclean’s, the most influential current affairs magazine in Canada, covers national and international politics, business, social issues and culture on a weekly basis. This article was published November 1, 2010.

The sky-high price of gold has sparked a modern-day rush to Ontario’s mining towns

With the price of gold currently hovering around US$1,300 an ounce—up 45 per cent since early 2009—Ontario’s mining towns are exhibiting the classic symptoms of a boom: inflated house prices, overbooked hotels, frantic construction, labour shortages and a collective sense of optimism after decades in a slump. Across the province’s northern gold belt, defunct mines are being revived and exploration activity has taken an almost frenzied pace, the product of gold being an investment safe haven amid global economic uncertainty and a weak U.S. dollar.

“I’ve been here a long time,” says Brock Greenwell, statistical analyst for Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry. “And 2010 is looking like a record year for gold exploration. It’s unprecedented.”

There are 12 gold mines operating in Ontario, with four more slated to start production by 2012. And, with exploration expenditures for precious metals—mostly gold—expected to exceed $620 million this year in the province (compared with $389 million in 2009), it’s a safe bet that more mines will follow. “It’s an absolute boom,” says Bill Greenway, economic development officer for the municipality of Red Lake. “There are 40-plus exploration companies here at any given time.”