July 8, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Barkerville in spotlight over gold find – by Peter Koven (National Post – July 7, 2012)

July 8, 2012

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

Did Barkerville Gold Mines Ltd. make one of the greatest Canadian gold discoveries in decades? If so, investors aren’t buying it just yet. Until last week, Vancouver-based Barkerville was a little-followed junior mining company on the TSX Venture Exchange, one of hundreds. It is now in the spotlight because of a massive gold resource it reported at its Cow Mountain project in central British Columbia.

Barkerville said drilling at Cow Mountain has uncovered a staggering 10.6 million ounces of indicated gold resources. The company’s press release also stated the “geological potential” of Cow Mountain could be as high as 90 million ounces.

To put it in perspective, the legendary Timmins gold camp has produced about 70 million ounces. Less than 100 million ounces are produced globally each year. It is unusual for a company to use geological potential figures at the top of a press release like that (particularly with such monstrous numbers), and it troubled some experts.

In Mongolia, a New, Penned-In [Mineral] Wealth – by Dan Levin (New York Times – June 27, 2012)

July 10, 2012July 8, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/

TAVAN TOLGOI, Mongolia — “All you need to mine here is a shovel,” said an awe-struck Indian investment manager as he stood behind a barrier, along with dozens of international mining industry executives and other eager investors, gazing at the immense coal pit gouged out of the rust-colored earth below.

Coal may have lured the foreigners to this stretch of the Gobi, but that is just part of the buried treasure to be found now that this nation of livestock herders has started digging in earnest. Mongolia has not only enough coal to fuel China’s huge demand for the next 50 years, but also vast troves of copper, gold, uranium and other minerals the world covets.

While Mongolia may be blessed by geology, it is cursed by geography. Landlocked between China and Russia, its three million people face a geopolitical quandary: Every path to prosperity leads through their mighty neighbors’ territory. And Moscow and Beijing intend to make Mongolia pay dearly for the privilege.

Mayor of Asbestos says misunderstood town’s history is ‘a source of pride’ – by Graeme Hamilton (National Post – July 7, 2012)

July 8, 2012

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

When a government preparing for an election has a job-creating investment to announce, it does not usually schedule it for a Friday afternoon before a long weekend. But when the announcement is in Asbestos, Que., and the funding will revive a dormant mine producing the carcinogenic fiber that gives the town its name, officials prefer not to make too big a splash.

So it was last week, as Quebec’s Liberal government announced a $58-million loan to the Jeffrey Mine to convert the open pit to an underground operation that is expected to yield chrysotile asbestos for another 25 years beginning next June.

The timing could not completely stifle the backlash, and the government has come under fire from health professionals and environmentalists — the head of Quebec’s association of community-health physicians said the loan amounts to subsidizing cancer.

For Hugues Grimard, Mayor of Asbestos, such attacks are nothing new. Last year his town was made a laughingstock by the American TV program The Daily Show, whose interviewer asked the mine’s president, Bernard Coulombe, whether the word asbestos meant something different in French. “Because in English it means slow, hacking death.”

Asbestos gets a new lease on death – by Colin Kenny (Montreal Gazette – July 6, 2012)

July 8, 2012

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

Senator Colin Kenny is former deputy chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources

If students want to fight injustice why haven’t they taken to the streets over the government’s latest decision?

Canada’s notorious asbestos industry has been given a new lease on death. A $58-million loan guarantee from the Quebec government will allow the town of Asbestos to resume shipments of this documented killer to developing countries, where impoverished construction workers will be forced to gamble with its deadly potential to tear apart their lungs.

Where are Quebec student protesters when Canada really needs them? In their focus on tuition fees, they never were quite able to make the case that the Charest government is morally bankrupt. Now that the Quebec government has agreed to bankroll asbestos exports denounced by medical experts around the world in order to restore 425 jobs in rural Quebec, it should be a lot easier to make the case.

The use and abuse of asbestos goes way back to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. The Greeks used its fibres to make fabrics more enduring, as did the Egyptians, who embalmed pharaohs in it. Since it was so fire-resistant, the Persians wrapped bodies for cremation in it, the better to gather the ashes of the deceased.