July 16, 2011 – Republic of Mining

Wayne Snider is the city editor for The Daily Press, the city of Timmins newspaper. Contact the writer at news@thedailypress.ca.

“I understand why people would be cynical. For years the government has put
the wish list of Southern Ontario special interest groups ahead of Northern
Ontario….We need to demonstrate to all Ontarians the vital need to develop
the Ring of Fire….This is a once in a century opportunity.”
(PC Leader Tim Hudak – July 15, 2011)

www.changebook.ca/north

Tory leader says Kidd Creek smelter shutdown was avoidable

Tim Hudak says the closure of the smelter at the Kidd Creek Metallurgical Site was completely avoidable. It was a matter of government priorities.

The provincial Progressive Conservative Leader unveiled his election platform for Northern Ontario this week. Dubbed changebook North, Hudak claims his party will create an environment that will allow the region to prosper.

High hydro costs and taxation, he said, are two of the reasons that companies like Xstrata Copper take jobs out of province. “(Premier Dalton) McGuinty failed to provide the leadership necessary to keep those jobs,” Hudak said in an interview with The Daily Press on Friday. “This was a catastrophic loss for not only Timmins, but for all of Ontario.

“We want to make Northern Ontario attractive for investment. High taxes and hydro rates have moved Ontario to the bottom of the list for investment.”

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media. Brenda Bouw is the Globe’s mining reporter.

VANRHYNSDORP, SOUTH AFRICA, VANCOUVER – Filled with radioactive waste, its buildings gutted and crumbling after 48 years of disuse, the abandoned Steenkampskraal mine would seem to hold little value to anyone.

Until recently, the decaying apartheid-era mine in a remote patch of South African desert was mainly of interest to scientists studying the effects of high radiation on the thousands of bats that hibernate in the empty mine shaft.

But soon the bats will be evicted, the radioactive waste will be buried and the shaft refurbished. The Canadian owners of this mine are scrambling to tap the mine’s rare-earth minerals – possibly the hottest commodity on the planet these days, with immense strategic and technological significance, and pivotal to a global geopolitical rivalry.

As prices soar, there is a frantic global rush to develop new sources of rare earths. These obscure minerals – 17 different elements with futuristic names such as neodymium, samarium, yttrium and lanthanum – are crucial for everything from guided missiles and hybrid cars to flat-screen televisions, iPods and BlackBerry phones.

Hudak promises change for the North – by Wayne Snider (Timmins Daily Press – July 15, 2011)

The [global] race for rare metals – by Geoffrey York and Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – July 16, 2011)