Uranium deal with china ‘important’ for Saskatchewan – by Joe Couture (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – January 10, 2012)

www.starphoenix.com

Wall claims ‘great day’ for province

An agreement that is expected to allow Canadian companies to ship uranium to China is “very, very important” for Saskatchewan, Premier Brad Wall said on Thursday in reaction to news from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to the Asian superpower.

“It’s a great day for Saskatchewan and we want to thank the federal government and the prime minister for raising a very Saskatchewan issue on their trade mission and making progress,” Wall told reporters Thursday at the Legislative Building.

Though a small amount of Saskatchewan uranium has been shipped to China before under special agreements, the new trade agreement signed by Harper is expected to allow Saskatchewan producers to directly sell Canadian yellowcake – a type of uranium concentrate powder – to China, he continued.

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Asbestos industry under microscope – by Michelle LaLonde (Montreal Gazette – February 11, 2012)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

Call for government to stop financial aid

If you were a private investor looking to sink some money into a promising venture, the expansion of an asbestos mine in Quebec may not sound like a great bet these days.

Quebec’s asbestos industry has been taking a heavy pounding of late, with two damning documentaries airing on CBC and Radio-Canada, renewed calls from politicians in Quebec City and Ottawa to outlaw the cancer-causing mineral, and a review launched into some industry-funded research at McGill this week.

On Friday, the opposition Québec Solidaire called on the provincial and federal governments to stop financing the asbestos industry and to ban export of the mineral. Parti Québécois mining critic Martine Ouellette told Canadian Press she wants a parliamentary commission to look at the issue.

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Coal Miner’s Daughter (Mining Movie – 1980)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Coal Miner’s Daughter is a 1980 American biographical film which tells the story of country music icon Loretta Lynn. It stars Sissy Spacek in her Academy Award for Best Actress winning role, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo and Levon Helm, and was directed by Michael Apted.

Background

The film was adapted from Lynn’s 1976 autobiography written with George Vecsey. Loretta Lynn was one of eight children born to Ted Webb (Levon Helm), a coal miner raising a family despite grinding poverty in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, pronounced by locals as “Butcher Holler”. She married Oliver Vanetta (Doolittle) “Mooney” Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones) when she was 13 years old.

A mother of four by the time she was 19 (and a grandmother by age 29), Lynn began singing the occasional song at local honky-tonks on weekends as well as making the occasional radio appearance.

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North Country (Mining Movie – 2005)

This information is from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by Niki Caro. The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, which chronicled the case of Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Company.

Plot

In 1989, Josey (Charlize Theron), returns to her hometown in Northern Minnesota with her children, Sam (Thomas Curtis) and Karen (Elle Peterson), after escaping from her abusive husband. She moves in with her parents, Alice (Sissy Spacek) and Hank (Richard Jenkins). Hank is ashamed of Josey, who became pregnant at the age of 16, and believes that this was the result of Josey being promiscuous.

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More nickel sulphide and chromite mineralization found in [Ring of Fire] mining camp – Northwest Bureau (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – February 11, 2012)

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

Noront Resources Ltd. has identified more nickel sulphide and chromite mineralization at its McFauld’s Lake Project in the Ring of Fire mining camp.

“While drilling to increase the chromite resource at Blackbird continued to return excellent results, the discovery of two new zones of nickel sulphide mineralization within 500 metres of (the company’s) Eagle’s Nest (deposit), highlights the tremendous exploration potential of this area,” company CEO Wes Hanson said in a news release.

“Both zones of nickel sulphide mineralization were identified by a new, ground-based geophysical survey that was completed in November,” he said. Hanson noted that the Eagle’s Nest feasibility study is progressing on time and on budget as is the resource update and preliminary assessment of the Blackbird chromite deposit.

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[Sudbury] City must ease reliance on government job – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – February 11, 2012)

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Greater Sudbury’s relatively slow but consistent growth over the last 10 years shows we’ve been successful in easing the boom and bust cycle, but there are ominous signs in the numbers.

The 2011 census shows the city grew by 1.5%, to 160,077 people from 2006, when the population stood at 158,258.

We’ve done well next to northeastern Ontario’s nine other major municipalities. Kenora grew by 1.1%, Sault Ste. Marie grew by 0.3%, North Bay’s population declined by 0.6% and Timmins grew by 0.4%.

Still, only about 5,500 more people live in Greater Sudbury now than 10 years ago, despite two boom periods in that time. The year 2001 was a signature period for Sudbury. It ended five years of steep decline in which the city lost 10,000 people.

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Nevada mining industry expects to add at least 1,200 jobs this year – by Sean Whaley (Foxreno.com – February 10, 2012)

www.foxreno.com

NV News Bureau

CARSON CITY – Nevada’s mining industry is stepping up to Gov. Brian Sandoval’s challenge asking businesses and all economic partners to help create 50,000 jobs over the next three years.

The Nevada Mining Association recently conducted an informal survey of its members and has estimated the industry will add 1,200 jobs this year, both in precious metal and industrial mineral production across the state. The survey could be underestimating the number of mining jobs being created this year since not all mining operations are members of the association.

This compares to 500 jobs created in the natural resources and mining sector reported in the 12 months through December 2011 by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation on Jan. 23. There were 12,900 jobs in this sector as of December.

Mining has remained a bright spot in the jobs arena during Nevada’s long running economic downturn.

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It’s time for Canada to play trade hardball – Diane Francis (National Post – February 11, 2012)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The Prime Minister’s visit to China netted more than a couple of pandas for a decade. It got Washington’s attention. The optics, notably concerning the oil sands, were the main aim of the high-level visit. And it worked.

The threat that Canada would divert energy to China instead of to the United States led Mitt Romney to hoist approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to the top of his political agenda.

There is little doubt that a new version of the Keystone, with a different route or by train, will be approved even if U.S. President Barack Obama wins a second term. The Keystone project was ill-conceived from beginning. The route was foolish. Moreover, oil sands production should be upgraded in Canada or shipped by looping existing pipelines from north to south.

The timing made it impossible for any sitting president to approve, especially when to do so would alienate a large chunk of the base of his support. Any mega-project should be broken down into bitesized pieces, avoid election cycles and operate under all radars.

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