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 Iamgold Corp., the $608-million acquisition of a little-known Ontario gold explorer is a step toward two key company goals – offsetting an Africa-heavy portfolio and propelling it toward a goal of doubling production in five years.

Toronto-based Iamgold is offering $3.30 a share for Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc., which gives it control of a large gold deposit practically in its backyard, thousands of kilometres from Iamgold’s key producing assets in South America and Africa.

“The acquisition of Trelawney creates a larger and more geographically balanced portfolio of long-life gold assets for Iamgold,” Steve Letwin, the company’s chief executive officer, said Friday.

The all-cash acquisition comes as gold companies’ equity valuations flounder, sliced in half in some cases from year-ago levels by investors abandoning the sector in favour of less risky, higher-yielding assets. Ballooning costs for everything from raw materials to skilled labour are also fuelling investor concerns. Read the rest of this entry »

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

CALGARY — TransCanada Corp. said it’s taking a serious look at converting its underused mainline, Canada’s largest natural gas pipeline, to oil service, a prospect that would give a big boost to the idea of a Canadian solution to anti-oil sands activism by shipping more of Canada’s Western oil to Eastern consumers.
 
CEO Russ Girling said Friday refiners in Eastern Canada and oil producers in Western Canada are keen on the concept and have asked TransCanada to look into the feasibility of converting parts of the system.
 
“We are going to actively pursue it and see if we can turn it into an opportunity for both, the oil and gas industry and TransCanada,” Mr. Girling told reporters after addressing the company’s annual meeting.
 
The giant pipeline is TransCanada’s original business and is one of Canada’s nation-building infrastructures. For decades, it is has moved natural gas from Empress, Alta., down to the U.S. northeast and into Ontario and Quebec. Read the rest of this entry »

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

The sprawling copper mine that stretches deep below White Pine once employed thousands of people, helping make the remote Michigan town a thriving outpost of the state’s northern hinterland.
 
Prices for the metal started to plummet, however, forcing the facility to shut down in 1996 and leaving White Pine a virtual ghost town. Suburban bungalows that once housed copper miners and their families now sell to vacationers for as little as $10,000.
 
Now a Canadian company is promoting an unorthodox form of salvation for the area, floating a plan to grow marijuana inside the cavernous mine to serve the state’s legion of 180,000 licensed pot users. Like a similar subterranean operation that Prairie Plant Systems (PPS) owns in Manitoba, the Michigan site would offer security from theft, natural climate control and little chance of contamination, its supporters argue.

Legislation expected to be introduced in both Michigan state chambers in the next week or two would set the stage for such industrial-scale production, outlining a series of standards that medical marijuana producers must meet. Michigan approved personal use of cannabis as a health product in 2008, but its somewhat chaotic implementation has undermined patient and public safety, said Brent Zettl, CEO of Prairie Plant. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.timminstimes.com/

Company expertise beginning to show results across the city

Land reclamation work by Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines continues in Timmins and the results appear positive. The company, which won an environmental award last year, for its work on the Coniaurum tailings project, is moving forward on the Hallnor tailings in the East End and a company official said the work is progressing better than expected.

Goldcorp PGM’s environmental manager László Götz, said this past week that the company is becoming so adept at reclamation work that the job is actually running more smoothly than expected. Götz was speaking at a meeting of the Porcupine Watchful Eye, a community group that oversees Goldcorp environmental operations in Timmins.

“The Hallnor Reclamation seems to be now going easier because of the experience we gained during the Coniaurum and Hollinger tailings reclamations. So I can say that our work is much better going than previously thought,” said Götz.

He is referring to the fact that Goldcorp has spent huge sums of money in the past five years to restore old tailings properties to a more natural state. Read the rest of this entry »

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

IT SEEMS there is so much going on in Thunder Bay that it’s hard to keep track of. In one way, that’s a good thing. Thunder Bay needs development to complement what’s left of forestry, build on the next big mining boom and capitalize on the emergence of medical research clusters.

But citizens need to keep aware and be apprised of all these initiatives. It’s our community, our region, and the power brokers must always bear in mind who’s in charge. Grand plans cost money and it mostly comes from taxpayers.

There are two distinct camps among supporters of a proposed event centre. Those who favour a downtown waterfront site agree it will build on and feed off the city’s designated entertainment district surrounding it. Those set on Innova Business Park like the wide-open space to allow for on-site parking and access from adjacent expressways.

A letter writer today wonders if Thunder Bay and area’s notoriously fickle sports fans will troop to a new arena when so few fail to attend events like the Dudley Hewitt Cup. Read the rest of this entry »

This article came from Wawatay News: http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Remember back in January when all sides were talking about the new relationship between the federal government and First Nations? Phrases like resetting the relationship, unlocking the potential and realizing the promise were being bandied about by everyone involved.
 
Those days seem like a long time ago. Since then a number of major resource projects have taxed the federal government-First Nations relationship. Paramount is the Northern Gateway pipeline that would bring oilsands bitumen to BC’s west coast, for transport by supertanker to Chinese refineries. Over 50 First Nations oppose that project, including nations with traditional lands all along the pipeline’s route.
 
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver lumped together opponents to the pipeline, including First Nations, environmentalists and labour organizations, as “radicals” out to stop all development. He stated publically that these radical groups are being funded by foreign money in order to “undermine Canada’s national economic interest.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Municipal, business and union leaders demand meeting with premier to discuss Ontario Northland

Northern leaders are refusing to give up the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission without a fight. Northern Ontario municipal, business and labour leaders met via teleconference this week to discuss strategy for saving Ontario Northland.

On Tuesday, the provincial Liberal budget was passed, even though opposition could have vetoed it in the current minority government situation. The plan to privatize the ONTC was left in the budget.

The group is making its second request for a meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty to discuss the issue. In addition, they are requesting meetings with leaders of the opposition.

“Although the opposition parties are suggesting we are going into Round 2 in the fight, not being made aware of the process or even the rules of engagement, we are feeling that we have been knocked to the canvas and once again abandoned in the North,” said Iroquois Falls Mayor Gilles Forget. Read the rest of this entry »