THE common expression of civic pride captured in bronze, stone or metal and given pride of place in a town’s centre is the likeness of an explorer, a leader or an athlete of distinction.
In Dampier, on Australia’s northwest shoulder, locals erected a statue in honour of a folk hero who helped galvanise the town as the area emerged as a mining hub in the 1970s. It just happened that leader was a dog: a wandering and faithful kelpie dubbed Red Dog.
Tales of Red Dog’s travels as far south as Perth and far north as Broome, his loyal companionship of many locals and his fearsome farts were such legend the dog became a defining figure for the burgeoning mining region, a figure representing the toughness and gypsy nature of the area’s growing band of employees.
So much so, Australian authors Nancy Gillespie and Beverly Duckett wrote books about the Pilbara wanderer before the English author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres, wrote his own semi-fictionalised and ultimately bestselling book about the kelpie’s adventures. Read the rest of this entry »
In addition to providing entertainment to millions around the world, movies help develop the general public’s perception of the world. Knowledge of how the earth sciences, and earth scientists, are portrayed in films can help the geoscientific community in presenting important messages to the public on such topics as global change, volvanic- and earthquake-hazard mitigation, land use, and the environment.
How effective are movies in forming public opinion? Probably much more than we realize. Current movie releases are often accompanied by major marketing efforts that can set trends and fads. The plethora of Batman paraphernalia and public awareness that accompanied the release of that film in 1989 is an example of how effective such marketing can be.
Similarly, films that have social messages, for example, “Rainman’s” treatment of autism and the current film “Stanley and Iris,” which deals with the issue of adult illiteracy, commonly help raise the general public’s awareness of a variety of subjects. However, such effects are difficult to quantify, particularly among professionals who commonly do not want to admit that they actually spend time on such diversionary pursuits as watching the “boob tube” or watching anything other than “critically acclaimed” art films. Read the rest of this entry »
To outsiders, Polish copper producer KGHM Polska Miedz SA’s $2.83 billion offer for Canada’s Quadra FNX Mining may look like just another cross-continental deal, a bet copper prices will go higher. Maybe similar to Chinese Jinchuan Group’s $1.1 billion takeover of Johannesburg-listed Metorex, driven by a desire to gain access to higher quality assets to replenish depleting reserves.
But until now, government-controlled KGHM, which has a lock on all the copper and silver deposits in Poland, sat on the sidelines of the acquisition game, even as the government’s stake in it protected it from unsolicited takeovers.
KGHM couldn’t wait forever with its “bold move”, said a Warsaw-based investment banker who didn’t advice on the Quadra deal but hopes to work for the company in the future and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The alternative to this acquisition was stagnation, paying out a juicy dividend year after year, and then shutting down the company when copper deposits run out in about 30 years, analysts said. Read the rest of this entry »
The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.
Michael R. Skutezky BA LLB, Professional Corporation, practicing in association with Ormston List Frawley LLP Toronto.
‘It’s all about China, demand, scale, logistics, off-take and capital’
The global iron ore phenomenon in the context of the commodity super-cycle currently being experienced is a result of the continuous growth of a very large emerging market – China.
China’s iron ore resources are poor (both in terms of grade and size) and its production cost is high in a global environment where the industry concentration in the upstream iron ore sector is very high (the Big Three oligopoly has about 60-70% of the market) while the downstream steel sector is very low (the top three producers constitute slightly above 10% market share).
Over the last decade, China contributed more than 90% to the growth of the global steel industry, representing 500Mtpa on the 566Mpta total increase of global crude steel production on an annual basis during this period. Read the rest of this entry »
Toronto-based Noront Resources has stepped up its efforts to work with the communities in the vast 5,000-square-kilometre area of the James Bay Lowlands, where mineralization abounds under traditional Aboriginal land.
As the largest claim holder in the camp, the junior has dedicated a significant part of its annual budget to establishing working relationships with the local communities, including Marten Falls and Webequie, the Aboriginal communities most affected by exploration activities. It is expected that all communities in the region will stand to benefit as the region moves closer to development and government becomes involved in regional infrastructure building.
“One of our main focuses is on the youth in Webequie and Marten Falls,” says Wes Hanson, president and CEO of Noront, who declined to attach a dollar figure to the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) program in the area. “We are encouraging them to stay in school and continue their education. We want to show the young students that there are potential jobs in mining that will allow them to live in the community and, at the same time, work at their careers.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Canadian Mining Journal is Canada’s first mining publication providing information on Canadian mining and exploration trends, technologies, operations, and industry events.
Marketa Evans is the Government of Canada’s Extractive Sector CSR Counsellor. The CSR Counsellor is a special advisor to the Minister of International Trade. The Counsellor has no policymaking role and does not represent Government of Canada policy positions.
I am delighted to begin a new “Corporate Social Responsibility and Mining” column for Canadian Mining Journal. Over the coming months, you can expect this column to explore some key issues in the rapidly evolving CSR landscape.
Let’s start with a little recent history. When I first wrote a guest column for this magazine in April 2007, I saw a significant opportunity for the Canadian mining industry to drive a leadership position on social issues in emerging markets.
The industry, I argued then, “will be judged on its ability to manage social issues” in countries where “domestic regulation and accountability” may be weak. The good news, I said then, and still believe, is that on issues of CSR and mining, Canadian interests and Canadian values are aligned. Read the rest of this entry »
The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
The lawyer for United Steelworkers has a remedy for how the Ontario Labour Relations Board can resolve the case of eight workers fired by Vale Ltd. during the union’s yearlong strike against the mining giant.
Brian Shell asked the panel to direct that the dismissals be dealt with by just-cause arbitration; that those arbitrations be scheduled and heard within three to four months; and that the eight firings be heard in six separate arbitrations so they don’t drag on for a decade.
Vale Ltd. offered a more simple fix during final arguments presented to the OLRB on Thursday in Sudbury. Don’t direct the firings to arbitration. Let them stand.
Shell spoke with reporters after six hours of closing arguments, saying Vale was essentially telling the labour board Vale “should be allowed to do what we want and exercise our superior strength, power and money freely without regulation by the labour relations board.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.
If Vale Ltd. is so confident it had good reason to dismiss eight Steelworkers during the union’s year-long strike, it shouldn’t be reluctant to let a provincial arbitrator determine if they were fired with just cause, says the union’s lawyer.
But Vale argues its confidence that the firings were justified demonstrates the care that company officials took to make those decisions. Those statements were presented during final arguments at an Ontario Labour Relations Board hearing into the union’s call for arbitration for its eight fired members.
More than a dozen days of testimony were held in Toronto into a bad-faith bargaining complaint filed by United Steelworkers at the six-month mark in their July 2009-July 2010 strike against the Brazil-based mining company. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
OTTAWA AND CALGARY— The Harper government has approved Canada’s fifth oil sands mine after the project spent six years under regulatory scrutiny, prompting a senior cabinet minister and energy executives to argue lengthy reviews are unacceptable.
France’s Total SA and its partners are now free to build their proposed Joslyn North strip mine after Joe Oliver, the federal Natural Resources Minister, gave Ottawa’s blessing Thursday, while pushing for regulatory reforms.
Mr. Oliver said the approval process for projects like the Joslyn North effort should take no more than two years. His comments, made in Ottawa, come as global leaders struggle to hammer out a new climate change treaty in South Africa. Mr. Oliver’s push to speed up the approval process will further fuel criticism of Canada’s oil sands industry, which is expected to double production by 2020 to three million barrels of crude per day. Read the rest of this entry »
