Nickel Slump Seen Ending as China Faces Ore Import Curbs – by Jae Hur, Agnieszka Troszkiewicz and Ichiro Suzuki (Bloomberg.com – May 31, 2012)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

After slumping more than any other industrial metal, analysts and traders say the worst may be over for nickel as restrictions on shipments from Indonesia, the biggest producer, diminish a worldwide glut.

Indonesia banned some ore exports from May 6 and imposed a 20 percent tax on the remainder to spur the development of its refining industry. The nation’s output will drop for the first time in four years in 2013, slashing global supply growth to 0.2 percent, from 4.9 percent in 2012, Morgan Stanley estimates. Prices will average $20,000 a metric ton in the fourth quarter, an increase of 23 percent, the median of 16 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg shows.

The metal fell 13 percent this year on prospects for the biggest surplus since 2009. Morgan Stanley now predicts the glut will peak in 2012 and Barclays Plc says prices should rally toward the end of the year on strengthening demand from stainless-steel makers, the biggest consumers. The rebound may not happen until then as China runs down record ore stockpiles accumulated in anticipation of the Indonesian ban.

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NEWS RELEASE: VALE STATEMENT REGARDING CHARGES UNDER THE ONTARIO OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ACT STEMMING FROM THE FATALITIES AT STOBIE MINE IN JUNE 2011

For Immediate Release

SUDBURY, May 31, 2012 – Vale today released the following statement regarding charges issued by the Ontario Ministry of Labour this afternoon under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act. The charges stem from the Ministry’s investigation into the deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram at Stobie Mine in June 2011.

“We have received and are in the process of reviewing the charges served by the Ministry of Labour stemming from the tragic deaths of Jason Chenier and Jordan Fram in June 2011. Vale has been charged with nine counts and a staff employee has been charged with six counts under the Act.

As this is a very serious matter, we need to consider the charges very carefully before we determine how we will proceed. Until that time, and as this is now before the court system, we will not be commenting further on this matter.

Our own investigation concluded that there were a number of factors contributing to the tragic deaths of Jason and Jordan.

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NEWS RELEASE: BMO – Let’s Create 4,000 Jobs Together in Sudbury by 2016

BMO releases report on outlook for economy, housing and labour market in Sudbury

– Sudbury’s unemployment rate expected to drop to 6 per cent by 2016; back to pre-recession lows

– Strong commodity demand and industry expansion will generate growth in mining sector

– Sudbury Chamber of Commerce: City is on the Move

– BMO offering support to Canadian businesses by making $10 billion in credit available over next three years

For the entire report, click here: http://www.bmonesbittburns.com/economics/reports/20120531/SR120531.pdf

SUDBURY, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – May 31, 2012) – The next four years will bring 4,000 new jobs to Sudbury, according to a new report released today by BMO Capital Markets Economics.

The report on Sudbury is the latest in a series of economic and business overviews for various cities across Canada that will be published by BMO throughout the year.

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Homestake [South Dakota gold mine] grand dame’s body donated to science – by Dorothy Kosich (Mineweb.com – May 31, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

One of the ultimate examples of the sustainability of mines-the nation’s first deep underground science lab-was formally unveiled deep in the caverns of the former Homestake gold mine.

RENO (MINEWEB) –  Nearly five years ago Mineweb told readers about plans to transform the former grand dame of U.S. gold mining, the Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, into the nation’s first national deep underground science laboratory.
 
On Wednesday, South Dakota’s Sanford Underground Research facility formally unveiled the new 4,850-foot deep Davis campus, which will seek to unravel the mystery of dark matter, and also search for a rare form of radioactive decay.
 
The Large Underground Xenon Dark Matter Search Experiment or LUX experiment, considered the world’s most sensitive and largest dark-matter detector–is the culmination of the work of 70 scientists and 14 institutions over the past four years.
 
LUX physicist Simon Fiorucci told a local TV station, “There is a lot of mass that does not emit light that we cannot account for.”

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BHP Billiton hints at Jansen potash mine delay – by Carrie Tait (Globe and Mail – May 31, 2012)

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.

CALGARY— BHP Billiton Ltd.’s (BHP-N60.84-0.72-1.17%) move to reconsider major spending plans may delay the construction of a promised potash mine in Saskatchewan, another sign the commodity “supercycle” is gearing down as slower global growth cools demand.
 
The Jansen project, estimated to cost as much as $12-billion, has the potential to become the largest potash mine in the world and is one of three major projects BHP was slated to consider for approval later this year. But comments by the global mining giant’s chief executive officer, Marius Kloppers, suggest the company could postpone such developments.
 
“You should not expect in the next six months any new major approval of projects,” Mr. Kloppers said in an interview with Caixin Media Co. “The economics of some of these projects has changed,” he said. “I think for the next two years, 18 months perhaps, we will just wait and see how things develop.”

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Brad Wall, defender of the West – by Gary Mason (Globe and Mail – May 31, 2012)

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.

When Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall took on Thomas Mulcair – on Twitter, no less – over the federal NDP Leader’s controversial “Dutch disease” comments, he couldn’t have imagined the national debate his move would touch off.

Three weeks after the fact, the matter is still fuelling political discussion in Canada. While the resultant furor wasn’t specifically on the agenda at the Western Premiers’ Conference in Edmonton this week, it certainly provided a compelling backdrop for the gathering.

Perhaps more than anything, the affair seemed to confer on Mr. Wall a role with which he seems entirely comfortable: protector of the West. Given that he is the senior statesman among a group of Western premiers who have very little experience in their positions, he was the likeliest candidate for the part in any event.

Mr. Wall’s decision to tweet his feelings about Mr. Mulcair’s position was hardly some impulsive, late-night, regret-later move carried out with a glass of wine in his hand. Rather, it was a response to frustration that had been building for months.

It started, he says, when he learned that a delegation of NDP MPs was heading to Washington to “get in the way” of efforts

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Ecuadorans seek $18.2 billion damage judgment against Chevron in Ontario courts – by John Spears (Toronto Star – May 31, 2012)

The Toronto Star, has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

A group of 30,000 Ecuadorans who won an $18.3 (U.S.) billion judgment against the oil giant Chevron in Ecuador for polluting the rainforest are asking Ontario’s courts to help them collect.

But the company is not yielding quietly in the two-decades-old case, claiming that the legal actions against it are a “multi-billion-dollar scam.” A Chevron executive has accused lawyers and consultants for the plaintiffs of trying to “extort a multi-billion dollar payment from Chevron through fabricated evidence and a campaign to incite public outrage.”

The Ecuadorans’ Canadian lawyer Alan Lenczner says he’s not re-trying a case that’s already been decided, however – he’s simply trying to enforce a judgment rendered in Ecuador.

The Ontario claim, filed Wednesday, hasn’t been tested in court. Statements of claim are subject to challenge, and material may be amended or deleted. The claim names Chevron Corp., Chevron Canada Ltd. and Chevron Canada Finance Ltd.

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Boom goes Sudbury – by Mike Whitehouse (Sudbury Star – May 31, 2012)

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

The next four years will bring 4,000 new jobs to Sudbury, an economic forecast released Wednesday predicts, but it will not be your grandfather’s economic boom.

The forecast, from the economists at BMO Capital Markets Economics, predicts the kind of rapid, game-changing growth for Sudbury last seen in Alberta — both good and bad — its authors say.

Sustainably strong commodity prices coupled with the maturation of Sudbury’s economy — clearly the centre of Northern Ontario’s booming mining cluster — will lead the way, says Robert Kavcic, an economist at BMO Capital Markets. “Employment in Sudbury has recouped all of the declines suffered during the recession,” he said.

“The city’s small labour pool makes statistics like the jobless rate volatile, but the underlying trend is clearly improving.” Even at 7%, Sudbury’s jobless rate remains below Ontario’s, a feat achieved in 2007, and a stark turnaround from about 15 years of a consistently high local unemployment rate, he said.

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