January 16, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Capital spending and the proposed mining-related investment that lies ahead – by Paul Stothart (CIM Magazine – December, 2011)

January 16, 2012

Founded in 1898, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) is a technical society of professionals in the Canadian minerals, metals, materials and energy industries.

Paul Stothart is vice-president, economic affairs, at the Mining Association of Canada. He is responsible for advancing the industry’s interests regarding federal tax, trade, investment, transport and energy issues.

The single most important contribution that companies can make to Canada is in the form of capital expenditure. In the mining sphere, capital spending pays for new mine construction and increases to existing mine capacity. It generates process and technology improvements and the modernization and expansion of mills, smelters and refineries.

It leads to the implementation of new product lines and improved energy efficiency and environmental performance. When companies commit to a particular capital spending program, the direct result is new jobs, contracts and production, as well as more modern and productive facilities.

Capital spending plans are driven by an array of variables, including: projected future global market demand and mineral price trends; degree of confidence in existing plant capacity; level of comfort with host government rules and regulations; and the state of a company’s existing financing capabilities.

A Mining Law Whose Time Has Passed – by Robert M. Hughes and Carol Woody (New York Times – January 11, 2012)

January 16, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/

Op-Ed Contributors Robert M. Hughes and Carol Ann Woody are fisheries scientists based in Corvallis, Ore., and Anchorage, respectively.

IN 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a mining law to spur the development of the West by giving hard-rock mining precedence over other uses of federal land. But the law has long since outlived its purpose, and its environmental consequences have been severe.

Mining claims for copper, gold, uranium and other minerals cover millions of those acres, and the law, now 140 years old, makes it nearly impossible to block extraction, no matter how serious the potential consequences. Soaring metal prices are now driving new mine proposals across the West.

Oregon’s Chetco River is one example. The river’s gin-clear waters teem with wild trout and salmon, including giant Chinook salmon tipping scales at more than 60 pounds. In 1988, Congress designated the Chetco a national wild and scenic river “to be protected for the benefit of present and future generations.”

But the river is now threatened by proposals to mine gold along almost half of its approximately 55-mile length. Suction dredges would vacuum up the river bottom searching for gold, muddying water and disrupting clean gravel that salmon need to spawn.

In New Control Over Diamonds, Smugglers Pay in Mozambique – by John Eligon (New York Times – January 6, 2012)

January 16, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/

ESPUNGABERA, Mozambique — The last time Mike Phiri was on his hands and knees, clawing through the rough rock of the diamond fields just across the border in Zimbabwe, he dared a soldier to shoot him.

Mr. Phiri and his fellow diamond smugglers had gotten into an argument with the soldier because, for the second consecutive night, he had directed them to a patch of the rich fields where there were no diamonds to be mined. And so they refused to pay him a bribe for allowing them onto the fields, in an area known as Marange. The soldier threatened force.

“If you want to shoot, shoot,” Mr. Phiri recalled barking at the soldier. “But I’m not paying.”

Mr. Phiri and his comrades walked away unharmed, but in more than three months he has not dared return to the fields, an acknowledgment of the increasing dangers for the black-market miners who once dominated an area that may be one of the world’s most lucrative diamond troves.

[Plan Nord] Quebec plan may be blueprint for Northwest – Special to The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal (January 16, 2012)

January 16, 2012

The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Northwestern Ontario is hoping to gain some perspective and insight from Quebec when it comes to economic development in Northern regions.

Members of National Public Relations are to be in Thunder Bay on Wednesday to provide information on Plan Nord, one of the largest economic, environmental and social projects in Canada.

Plan Nord, designed for Northern Quebec, will be carried out for the next 25 years. It is estimated that it will generate more than $80 billion in investments and create more than 20,000 jobs a year.

Members of the Northwestern Ontario Joint Task Force are eager to learn more about Plan Nord, and see how it might impact Northwestern Ontario and if similar strategies can be applied in the region.

“Given the $80-billion program, is it going to be more attractive for investment than Northwestern Ontario,” task force chairman Iain Angus, said Sunday.

Why is Ontario’s Government Panicking About the Deficit? – by Livio Di Matteo (January 8, 2012)

January 16, 2012

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

The Ontario government’s final approach to deficit reduction has begun with selected leaks of economist Don Drummond’s “first draft” of his review via media interviews designed to dramatically present deficit reduction. A column by Martin Regg Cohn of the Toronto Star titled “Brace for a firestorm across Ontario” outlines cuts as high as 30 percent for some Ontario ministries with health and education being spared “somewhat”.

Yet, the same column has Don Drummond using the language of the Wall Street protestors by talking about how just one percent of the population accounts for half of hospital spending and one third of total health expenditures. Martin Regg Cohn’s most recent column on Don Drummond’s prescriptions titled “The grim reaper punctures Ontario’s fiscal fantasies” points out how unrealistic balancing the budget by 2017-18 was and shares the blame on fiscal forecasting by mentioning that the opposition parties embraced the same timetable during the election.

What is going on here? All of this advance work by the Ontario government reduces what should be a serious policy problem requiring a firm and measured approach to some kind of fiscal porn reality show.