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Day: September 9, 2011

Canada lax in support of efforts to ease corruption abroad – by Don Cayo (Vancouver Sun – September 9, 2011)

www.vancouversun.com

http://eiti.org/ (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative)

Canada is less enthusiastic than it ought to be in support of a high-level attempt to shine light into the oftenmurky world of international mining and oil extraction, says the head of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

And Canadian companies drag their feet worse than our government, says Clare Short, the former U.K. cabinet minister who made her country a leader in effective international development and is now the chair of the decade-old initiative launched by former British prime minister Tony Blair and supported by the G8.

The federal government endorses the initiative and has a representative on its board, and seven major companies – Vancouver-based Goldcorp and Teck, plus Barrick, Kinross, Rio Tinto, Talisman and Vale – have signed on to abide by the principles of the initiative.

But Canadian companies punch far above the country’s weight in international mining – Short says Canadian miners are the biggest single international player in Africa, for example – and she thinks many more should be on board.

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NDP promises respect for Northern Ontarians – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – September 9, 2011)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

If the New Democratic Party is elected in Ontario, it would ensure resources that could be processed here are, it would cut the HST from electricity and home heating bills and encourage 200 doctors to practise in underserviced areas of the province, at least 50 of them in the North.

Northeastern Ontario would also get the positron emission tomography scanner that thousands of northerners have been calling for, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath told a partisan crowd at Laurentian University on Thursday.

Those promises and more are contained in the Respect for the North plan Horwath unveiled in Sudbury at her first stop on a northern tour.

It is time Queen’s Park showed respect to the people and the communities of the North, said Horwath, and hers is the party to do it.

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NEWS RELEASE: Probe Mines Announces Memorandum of Understanding With Brunswick House, Chapleau Cree and Chapleau Ojibwe First Nations for Its Borden Lake Gold Project, Chapleau, Ontario

Sep 07, 2011

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Sept. 7, 2011) – Probe Mines Limited (TSX VENTURE:PRB) (“Probe” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with the Brunswick House, Chapleau Cree and Chapleau Ojibwe First Nations communities near Chapleau, Ontario. The MOU establishes a commitment by Probe to develop an ongoing relationship with the three communities in the area of the Company’s Borden Lake Gold Project and provides the communities with an opportunity to participate in the benefits of the project through training, ongoing communication and business development.

An Elders Committee (the “Committee”) will be created to provide advice to the Company on traditional values and local cultural and environmental matters during the exploration phase. Probe has also agreed to negotiate an Impact Benefit Agreement with the communities should the project proceed to production.

David Palmer, President of Probe, states “The signing of the MOU is an important first step in building a relationship based on mutual respect and cooperation with the First Nations communities. We are looking forward to working with the communities and receiving their input as we explore the Borden Lake area. Their contribution of local knowledge will be invaluable in helping us create a socially responsible exploration program to the benefit of all involved.”

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Global Uncertainties Are A Sure Bet – Ned Goodman (Canadian Mining Journal – September, 2011)

The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication.

Ned Goodman is President and CEO of Dundee Corporation, an asset management company dedicated to private wealth management, real estate and resources.

“We remain solidly long-term bullish on our
scenario that demand for most commodities,
including food, will remain in excess of
the world’s ability to supply.”(Ned Goodman –
President and CEO Dundee Corporation)

It was some months ago that I was asked by Russ Noble if I would write a few words for an op-ed article in Canadian Mining Journal. There were several subjects that came to mind, just about all would have been too lengthy and not bear the kind of information required for this specialized and excellent magazine.

Sitting back, I thought I would write about development, global economic movements, freedom and the overall investment climate.

Amartya Sen, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, wrote a book in 1999 called “Development as Freedom”. He concluded the book with a quote from William Cowper: “Freedom had a thousand charms to show, That slaves, however contented, never know.”

Sen wrote too that, “Development is indeed a momentous engagement with freedom’s possibility”. In his book, Sen presented and defended a particular approach to the development of the global human population. He recommended as a process the expansion of substantive freedoms that would be available to people all over the world. He presents the perspective of freedom in both an evaluative analysis of assessing change and in a predictive analysis of “seeing freedom as a causally effective factor in the generation of rapid change.”

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Shoe on the other foot for Thunder Bay’s Gravelle – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – September 9, 2011)

The 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.

For the web’s largest database of articles on the Ring of Fire mining camp, please go to: Ontario’s Ring of Fire Mineral Discovery

THUNDER BAY – For most of his political career, Michael Gravelle has been seen as a fighter for his hometown of Thunder Bay – a little guy, literally and figuratively, standing up to those who would neglect Ontario’s Far North.

This fall, he’s fighting charges that he’s the one doing the neglecting.

Such is the mixed blessing of spending the past four years as Northern Development Minister for a government perceived not to have done enough to develop the region. So what was once one of the safest Liberal seats in the province is now up for grabs, with Mr. Gravelle one of several northern Liberal MPPs fighting for their political lives.

But who the real contenders are in Thunder Bay-Superior North, a sprawling riding that includes half of northwest Ontario’s largest city and some more far-flung communities, is less clear.

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Horwath plays to Northern [Ontario] discontent – Anna Mehler Paperny (Globe and Mail – September 9, 2011)

The 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.

THUNDER BAY – Over 19 hours and 3,300 kilometres, Andrea Horwath laid out her battle plan for Ontario’s north.

The region was home to some of the closest-fought races of the 2007 election. This year, the parties are going at it again. Their game plan? To duke it out over who is the best champion of a recession-hit region that tends to feel politically disenfranchised and far removed from Queen’s Park.

So Ms. Horwath, campaigning on a platform of average-Joe discontent, has a receptive ear to complaints of neglect.

“We can create a future for the North that creates good jobs. But it won’t happen by sticking with the made-in-Toronto status quo,” she said Thursday. “We are shipping away logs and we are buying back the sawdust. It makes no sense. And we can do better.”

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[Caterpillar’s] $14.5-Billion vote of confidence in mining – Russell Noble (Canadian Mining Journal – September, 2011)

Russell Noble is the editor for the Canadian Mining Journal, Canada’s first mining publication.

What Caterpillar did not only made headlines around the
globe, but it also sent a message to the entire world
and its leaders that the company believes in mining and
that it is committed to the industry for its own future
too. (Russell Noble – CMJ/September, 2011)

Fourteen-and-a-half billion dollars! That’s a lot of money and I don’t care how rich you are, those figures are attention grabbers in any circle. Even the richest of rich raise their eyebrows when the words “fourteen-and-a-half billion dollars” are mentioned because there’s always some serious business, and usually interesting opportunities, associated with that kind of money.

In mining, particularly when that amount of money is mentioned in conversation, juniors from coast to coast envisage more drill rigs or even a mine on their property someday while active miners probably start thinking deeper and wider about the properties they already own and operate.

And like the prospectors and developers I just mentioned, there are also others associated with mining (and big money) that think investing in the industry is a good thing too. And that’s exactly what Caterpillar Inc did when it recently announced that it bought Bucyrus International, Inc. for $8.8 billion and is planning to spend another $5.7 billion on research and development (and “yellow” paint) to make the products they just bought even better.

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