Memo to Drummond and McGuinty: Consolidate Ontario Mining Programs at Laurentian University – by Stan Sudol

Stan Sudol is a Toronto-based communications consultant who writes extensively on mining issues. stan.sudol@republicofmining.com

The Sudbury Basin itself, is the third most strategic and richest hardrock
mining centre in the world. The four combined mining clusters found in
Sudbury – mineral operations, education, research and supply and
services – are globally unique. (Stan Sudol)

Ontario’s mining industry is facing a perfect storm of skills shortages – mining engineers and geologists – at a time of severe provincial budget constraints. These fiscal problems will only diminish the mineral sector’s post-secondary education programs at a time when global economies are experiencing the most extraordinary demands for metal products in the history of mankind – a commodity super cycle.

According to the Mining Industry Human Resource Council’s (MiHR) 2010 Canadian Mining Industry Employment and Hiring Forecast report, under the baseline scenario the Canadian mining industry will need to hire 100,000 new workers by the end of 2020. This is the number of workers required to fill newly created positions and also to meet replacement demand as workers retire or leave the mining industry.

That forecast represents MiHR’s baseline scenario, if commodity prices perform better than expected (the expansionary scenario), the cumulative hiring requirements could reach nearly 135,000 workers by 2020.

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More professional programs calling Northern Ontario home – by Louise Brown (Toronto Star – May 28, 2011)

Louise Brown is the education reporter for 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.

There’s a new northern exposure to higher education in Ontario. First there was a fancy $95 million two-campus med school launched in cities known more for training drillers than doctors: Sudbury and Thunder Bay.

Then the lofty Law Society of Upper Canada gave its blessing this month to Thunder Bay’s dream for a law school, leaving Lakehead University to hope for provincial approval — and funding.

And this week, Queen’s Park approved a $44 million new school of architecture for Sudbury, kicking in $21 million. With the city pledging another $10 million for a program it hopes will pump $50 million a year into the Big Nickel’s economy, Canada seems poised to land its first new architecture school in 40 years.

Doctors, lawyers, architects — why so many blue-chip professional programs in the green woodlands that hold only 6 per cent of Ontario’s population?

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Why Maples’s bid is best fate for [Canadian] TMX – by David Olive (Toronto Star – May 28, 2011)

David Olive is a business columnist 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. dolive@thestar.ca

TMX accounts for nearly six of ten publicly traded mining firms worldwide. Last year,
they raised $17.8 billion in equity capital, about 60 per cent of the world mining total.
Close to 200 foreign resource firms have their principal listings on TMX exchanges,
though many lack Canadian assets. (David Olive – Toronto Star Business Columnist)

By 150-year-old tradition, TMX is in the business of nurturing its staggering 1,531 listed mining firms into global giants like Barrick Gold Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd.

If it succeeds, the rival bid for TMX Group Inc., owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange, will make history far beyond derailing a takeover offer for TMX made by London Stock Exchange PLC in February, supported by Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of Montreal.

The nine-member Maple Group Acquisition Corp., a consortium of four Canadian banks and five pension funds, seeks to further strengthen a TMX already regarded by investors worldwide as the “go-to” exchange for trading in resource firms, notably mining companies.

Current conventional wisdom has it that an urge to merge will result in a handful of global mega-exchanges.

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[Toronto Star freelance] Journalist deported for investigating [Barrick] mine massacre – by Jocelyn Edwards (Toronto Star – May 29, 2011)

The Toronto Star, which has the largest circulation in Canada, has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

But local leaders accuse the company of complicity in the conduct of the police,
because it employs officers to provide mine security, and allege that African Barrick
is benefiting from it. (Jocelyn Edwards)  “A community that has been intimidated is a
community that can’t demand its rights from the company.” (Tanzanian MP Tundu Lissu)

Reporter for the Star questioned in Tanzania as string of arrests follows deaths at Barrick site

KAMPALA, UGANDA—Given that I had been followed around the tiny town for two days by men in ’80s-style wraparound sunglasses, it wasn’t really a surprise to me when I finally got arrested last Thursday in northern Tanzania.

I had gone to the East African nation to investigate the deaths of five villagers gunned down at a mine in North Mara belonging to African Barrick, a subsidiary of Toronto-based mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. Barrick said the men killed by security forces — initial reports had pegged the death toll at seven — were “intruders.” Family members of the victims said the gold-laced stones the men routinely collected at the mine were their only means of survival.

Trucks of police in full riot gear patrolled the streets of Tarime, the town nearest the mine. The situation was tense and relatives of the deceased were huddled together in a compound.

Tuesday morning, I woke up and found the room next to mine empty. The environmental and human rights lawyer who had been staying there had been arrested, along with seven other people who had been guarding the bodies of the victims at the town mortuary.

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