[Wolf Lake] Is this a park or a mine site? – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 30, 2012)

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

WOLF LAKE — It’s my second day on Wolf Lake, a beryl-blue beauty socketed in quartzite hills north of Markstay, when I trip across the core samples.
 
Perhaps a dozen in all, these palm-length cylinders of rock — some a marbled pink, most the same greyish-white hue you see on the surface — form a weird pile at my feet, like the petrified scat of dinosaurs.
 
Paul Tukker, a former reporter with Sudbury CBC and my supposed companion on this trip, is currently AWOL. We’ve paddled over from our campsite on the eastern shore to explore this southwest bay, but he’s slipped away on me again.
 
To cool off, would be my educated guess. It’s another scorcher, and Tukker has already swum about six times since we set out yesterday from a public launch on Matagamasi Lake, crossing a couple of smaller lakes and two short but taxing portages en route. One time he disappeared mid-portage, when there wasn’t even any water in sight, and reappeared soaking wet. He’s a walking divining rod, this guy.

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Mine contractor gains recognition for apprenticeship training programs

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member Cementation Canada has gained recognition for promoting skilled trades, showing leadership in teaching apprentices and supporting apprenticeship training programs.  The North Bay based mine contractor was one of four companies recognized for its human resource practices at the annual Ontario Minister’s Awards for Apprenticeship Training.

Cementation Canada was recognized as a top provider of apprenticeships in Northern Ontario.  “The employees involved in the program are committed to advancing their careers as they are all grateful for an opportunity,” said Eric Hodgins, Personnel Manager for Cementation Canada.  “This program benefits both the individual and the company and we appreciate this recognition from the Ontario government.”

The company strives to take positive steps to bring young trades people into the mining sector through a well-developed apprenticeship program.  Cementation Canada has 17 employees involved in the company’s apprenticeship program in the mechanical and electrical fields in Ontario and an additional seven apprentices working on projects in other parts of Canada. 

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Qatar iron man faces off with Glencore on Xstrata deal – by Mirna Sleiman (Mineweb.com – June 29, 2012)

Bankers who have dealt with Ahmad al-Sayed, the Qatari investment manager holding the fate of Glencore’s takeover of Xstrata, all agree he is a tough negotiator, someone who will cut the deal at the terms he wants.

www.mineweb.com

DUBAI (Reuters)  –  Ahmad al-Sayed, the Qatari investment manager holding the fate of Glencore’s $26 billion takeover of Xstrata in his hands, is known as an aggressive negotiator who relishes the big deal.
 
The lawyer was formerly general counsel at Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the gas-rich Gulf state, before taking the helm as chief executive of Qatar Holding in 2008.
 
Well-liked and trusted by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the Qatari prime minister who is also chief executive of QIA and chairman of Qatar Holding, he has significant influence at the top level where decisions are made.
 
“An iron man, and a hedge fund manager in disguise, he can easily kill a deal if it doesn’t suit him,” said one banker who knows him personally.

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Sherritt as Cuba’s CP – by Peter Foster (National Post – June 29, 2012)

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

Once a catalyst, underperforming miner needs one now
 
When the recent proxy fight broke out over CP — whose repercussions continued this week with the resignation from the CP board of Rick George — my colleague Terence Corcoran cited another all-too-rare example of a catalyst investor taking on the Canadian corporate establishment. It was Ian “the Smiling Barracuda” Delaney’s successful 1990 fight for control of Sherritt, an historic but failing fertilizer and nickel-refining company based in Fort Saskatchewan, Alta.
 
In fact, the CP link doesn’t end there. Mr. Delaney subsequently guided Sherritt into Cuba, where he declared that he would make the company the island’s answer to … CP! Unfortunately, he spoke truer than he knew. Although Cuba now accounts for only a fifth of its assets, Sherritt has been a less than stellar performer over the past two decades. Meanwhile Mr. Delaney’s adventures as Fidel Castro’s “favourite capitalist” remain one of the more controversial aspects of the company’s recent history.

After Mr. Delaney expanded his Cuban ambitions to embrace a joint venture at Moa Bay, a cucaracha appeared in the ointment in the form of Helms-Burton, U.S. legislation that allowed its citizens, including naturalized Cuban-Americans, to sue anybody “trafficking” in assets expropriated by the 1959 Castro revolution.

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Ministry of Natural Resources job cuts, office closures coming, province says – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star – June 29, 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.

Job cuts and office closures are coming to Ontario’s Ministry of Natural Resources as it chops $70 million or 10 per cent of its spending over three years, Minister Michael Gravelle confirmed Thursday.
 
“These are tough decisions,” he acknowledged at a news conference, overshadowing the release of a plan to protect woodland caribou in a huge chunk of wilderness between Timmins and James Bay.
 
The deal, reached after negotiations with forestry firms and First Nations that signed the 2010 Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, would also allow logging companies to cut down 20 per cent more spruce trees over the next 30 years.
 
The proposal — which covers an area five times the size of Toronto — would protect 800,000 hectares of caribou habitat while leaving 2.2 million hectares further south open to forestry. “In the southern zone we haven’t seen caribou for some time,” said Janet Sumner, executive director of the conservation group CPAWS-Wildlands League, which supports the plan.

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Canada’s natural gas dreams closer to reality after Petronas moves – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – June 29, 2012)

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

CALGARY — Plans for a new industry to sell Canadian natural gas to Asia moved a lot closer to take off with two big moves by Petronas, the Malaysian national oil company.
 
The Kuala Lumpur-based giant offered Thursday to take over Calgary-based natural gas producer Progress Energy Resources Corp. for $5.5-billion, or $20.45 a share in cash — a 77% premium over Wednesday’s closing price. The deal builds on last year’s $1.07-billion joint venture between the two companies to develop Progress’s Montney shale assets in British Columbia.
 
Petronas also said it plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert, on the northern British Columbia coast, to ship 7.4 million tonnes a year from two trains, with the first cargo bound for Asia in 2018.

With Petronas’s advance, there are now three major LNG projects moving head in the B.C. coast, representing a solid platform for the emerging industry and providing a new market for depressed Western Canadian gas. Asia’s gas prices are much higher because they are linked to oil prices and there is demand to absorb huge supplies from shale fields such as the Horn River and the Montney.

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Matawa First Nations pledge to put brakes on Ring of Fire – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – June 28, 2012)

http://www.wawataynews.ca/

Governments and industry are “running roughshod” over First Nations and ignoring Treaty 9 when it comes to the Ring of Fire, say the First Nations behind an upcoming eviction notice being sent to industry in the region.
 
Six First Nations plan to issue 30-day eviction notices to all mining companies with exploration and development camps on Matawa First Nations’ traditional territory.
 
“Cliffs, Noront and all the other mining companies active in the Ring of Fire will have 30 days from the time the eviction notice is served to pack up their bags and leave our lands,” said Aroland Chief Sonny Gagnon. Chiefs from Nibinamik, Neskantaga, Constance Lake, Ginoogaming and Longlake #58 joined Gagnon in issuing the notices.
 
“We are sending a strong message to Ontario and Canada that we need to negotiate a process for First Nation participation in the mining projects that will be changing our lives forever,” said Neskantaga Chief Peter Moonias. “Unless and until we have a table for government to government negotiations we will evict the intruders from our lands.”

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Proud of the oil sands – by Father Raymond J. De Souza (National Post – June 28, 2012)

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

As Thomas Mulcair can attest, it is rather easier to speak about the oil sands than it is to actually get up here and see what is going on. Fort McMurray, Alta. is remote, and while my first visit was rather longer than Mr. Mulcair’s, it was still only a full day.

Three years ago, upon the occasion of the merger of oil sands pioneer Suncor with Petro-Canada, this column examined some of the ethical questions posed by oil sands development. The argument then was just emerging about “ethical oil,” namely that Alberta oil is morally and strategically superior because it does not support odious regimes, from Venezuela to Saudi Arabia to Russia. The argument has only become stronger since then, propelled by Ezra Levant’s eponymous book, and adopted in the rhetoric of the federal government.

The argument is actually stronger than comparative politics, with “democratic” oil trumping “tyrannical” oil. Only some 25% of the world’s oil reserves are developed by private companies; the vast majority are state enterprises. Of that quarter of global reserves, half are in the oil sands. The oil sands are a minority phenomenon in the oil business – development by private companies subject to the rule of law, accountable to public shareholders, and disciplined by market forces. Those displeased with the oil sands can lobby Suncor and the other companies operating here, they can shape the public policy environment, they can even invest and become shareholders, something rather easier to do in Calgary than in Caracas.

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Glencore courts Qatar as Xstrata revises merger pay – by Jesse Riseborough and Firat Kayakiran (June 28, 2012)

www.mineweb.com

Glencore yesterday met with Xstrata’s second-biggest shareholder Qatar Holding LLC over its call for a 16% increase in the commodity trader’s bid, people familiar with the London talks said.

LONDON (BLOOMBERG) –  Glencore International Plc and Xstrata Plc (XTA), seeking to salvage the year’s biggest takeover, moved to appease dissident investors who have threatened to derail the 16 billion-pound ($25 billion) deal.
 
Glencore yesterday met with Xstrata’s second-biggest shareholder, Qatar Holding LLC, over the sovereign wealth fund’s call for a 16 percent increase in the commodity trader’s bid, people familiar with the London talks said. Xstrata revised payments for executives intended to keep them at the combined company by adding a link to performance and made all bonuses payable in shares after holders attacked them as excessive.
 
Qatar, which spent more than $4 billion amassing an 11 percent Xstrata stake, surprised investors and analysts two days ago with its criticism of the price. It asked Glencore (GLEN) to raise its February offer of 2.8 of its shares for each of Xstrata’s to 3.25, Qatar said June 26. Pressure on the companies intensified after Xstrata revealed May 31 it planned to pay top executives 172.8 million pounds in bonuses for their loyalty.

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Province has to lead [in Ring of Fire]: [states Noront] miner – by Bryan Meadows (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – June 28, 2012)

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

The provincial government has to take a bigger leadership role in consultations between First Nations and mining companies in the Ring of Fire, says one of the companies developing a mine in the area.

“I think the root of the problem, is that the First Nations are seeking a greater amount of consultation. Our hope is that the government would lead those discussions,” Noront Resources president and CEO Wes Hanson said Wednesday.

Six First Nation leaders have threatened to issue eviction notices to all mining companies working in the Ring of Fire mining belt.

Upset over a lack of consultation, the leaders of Aroland, Constance Lake, Ginoogaming, Longlake #58, Neskantaga, and Nibinamik say they are in the final stages of issuing a 30-day eviction notice to all mining companies with exploration and development camps in the region, and implementing an immediate moratorium on all Ring of Fire mining activity.

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Questions and answers [about Ring of Fire] – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (June 27, 2012)

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

DETAILS have a way of getting in the way of ideas. You just get rolling when something unexpected stands in your way. How you deal with it determines if you succeed, fail or get bogged down. That’s where the huge potential of Ontario’s giant mining development sits — bogged down in jurisdictional disputes and, as of this week, a fundamental misunderstanding of events among Ontarians who had never heard of the Ring of Fire before a pollster called.

The Municipality of Greenstone and Aroland First Nation, both of which had sought consideration as sites for a chromite smelter, released a public opinion poll which they say shows Ontarians support them. They might, but this poll doesn’t prove it.

Cliffs Natural Resources, lead player in the Ring of Fire, considered several locations for its smelter and chose Sudbury because it has existing infrastructure. Other locations would add considerable cost and “put the economic viability of the project in jeopardy,” William Boor, a Cliffs vice-president, wrote in an open letter in this newspaper last month.

Greenstone, Aroland and other First Nations, are seeking changes to the development and the poll seeks to bolster their case. A thousand people across Ontario were asked their awareness of the Ring of Fire which has been compared to Alberta’s oil sands in terms of development potential. Only 30 per cent had even heard of it.

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Newly elected First Nations regional chief zeroes in on Ring of Fire – by Tanya Talaga (Toronto Star – June 28, 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.

The new representative of Ontario’s First Nations is taking aim at protecting aboriginal interests as developers rush to haul the riches out of the Ring of Fire.

Stan Beardy was elected Ontario regional chief representing 133 provincial First Nations on Wednesday. Beardy, former Grand Chief of the northern Nishnawbe Aski Nation, narrowly beat out incumbent Angus Toulouse. Fifty-seven Ontario chiefs voted for Beardy and 53 for Toulouse.

Dubbed Ontario’s “oilsands” by Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, the Ring of Fire is being promoted for development by both the federal and provincial governments. However, First Nations want a worthy piece of the economic benefits and they want to make sure proper environmental assessments of mining projects are carried out.

“The most important issue is the treaty relationship — when we sign a treaty that we never give up the right to cover ourselves or our aboriginal rights concerning natural resources,” he said from an airport hotel shortly after the vote.

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Ontario’s emergency response protocols under review following Elliot Lake disaster – by Adam Radwanski and Anna Mehler Paperny (Globe and Mail – June 28, 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.

With two bodies pulled from the wreckage of Elliot Lake’s Algo Mall, Dalton McGuinty’s government is set to begin a grim review of whether Ontario’s own emergency-response processes undermined the ultimately fruitless rescue mission.

A source in the Premier’s Office confirmed on Wednesday that the review will consider whether the specialized excavator used to dismantle the collapsed mall – four days after the crisis began – should have been brought in sooner.

After confusion about who was calling the shots on the ground, the review will examine whether the current emergency-response system delegates authority properly.

It will also consider whether structural concerns about the mall, brought to the Labour Ministry’s attention more than once, should have been identified and fixed before its collapse. But the overriding question hanging over the government concerns the strange sequence of events on Monday.

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Damage control in Elliot Lake’s disaster zone – Martin Regg Cohn (Toronto Star – June 28, 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.

Disaster brings out the best in us — our bravery, our resolve, our heart. Tragedy also brings us together. Except in Elliot Lake, where the dark events of the last few days have shone an uncomfortable light on the gap between our government and ourselves.
 
When the authorities announced they were giving up rescue efforts Monday night, police reinforcements were called in to restrain crowds of vigilantes who volunteered to go in themselves. Their spontaneous protests evoked Elliot Lake’s heyday as a mining town where rescue crews famously pledged to leave no man behind.
 
But when government takes charge, an engineer from the labour ministry can declare the disaster zone an unsafe worksite — and obediently, seemingly, rescuers down tools. Will they one day restrict firefighters from fighting fires deemed inherently risky?
 
Amid the recriminations, officials are trying to rescue themselves from a public relations disaster of their own making. In this damage control exercise, which almost dwarfs the original rescue mission in scale, they insist no one ever truly gave up.

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Vale delivers a breath of fresh air on the environmental front

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

Ontario Mining Association member Vale has officially launched its new $2 billion emissions control project in Sudbury.  The nickel producer had company officials, employees, civic leaders, local residents, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci, Environment Minister Jim Bradley and Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk on hand amongst others for the sod turning ceremony held last week.

The Clean AER (Atmospheric Emissions Reduction) Project promises to cut sulphur dioxide emissions from Vale’s smelter by 70% and trim dust and metals emissions by 35% to 40%.  This is one of the largest environmental projects ever undertaken in this province.  It is expected to be completed by the end of 2015 and will cut Vale’s emissions well below government regulated levels.

“This is a historic day for Vale and demonstrates the importance that Greater Sudbury plays in our global operations,” said John Pollesel, Chief Operating Officer for Vale Canada and Director of Vale’s North Atlantic Base Metals Operations. “Starting today, we are building a lasting legacy for our employees, the community and future generations who will live and work in Greater Sudbury and that is truly a reason to celebrate.”

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