September 11, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Rob McEwen: gold should be in your portfolio and it’s going to $5,000 – by Lawrence Williams (Mineweb.com – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 2012

www.mineweb.com

In an upbeat presentation at the Denver Gold Forum, Rob McEwen forecast that gold is going to $5,000, while setting out the path forwards for the company which now bears his name – McEwen Mining.

DENVER (MINEWEB) – This year’s Denver Gold Forum kicked off yesterday morning and one of the early speakers was Rob McEwen of McEwen Mining. He has a great name in the industry due to his long term stewardship of Goldcorp, which was largely responsible for building the gold mining major to the strong position it holds today.

Nowadays he runs McEwen Mining – a U.S. headquartered and quoted developing gold producer for which he has the avowed intent of bringing into the S&P 500 by 2015 – and with one gold/silver mine in production, a second just starting up with its first gold pour expected in a matter of weeks, a third in permitting and a very significant copper/gold/silver project at the exploration stage he may be well on his way to achieving this aim.

But it is perhaps as an avowed believer in gold that McEwen attracts a strong following at a conference of this type, perhaps the most significant annual gold event in the calendar- and he opened his presentation with a strong statement of his beliefs in this respect.

Teck admits operations polluted U.S. waters – by Dene Moore (Globe and Mail – September 10, 2012)

September 11, 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.

VANCOUVER — The Canadian Press – Canadian mining giant Teck Resources Ltd. has admitted in a U.S. court that effluent from its smelter in southeast British Columbia has polluted the Columbia River in Washington state for more than a century.

Teck subsidiary Teck Metals made the admission of fact in a lawsuit brought by a group of American Indian tribes over environmental damage caused by the effluent discharges dating back to 1896.

The agreement, reached on the eve of the trial initiated by the Colville Confederated Tribes, stipulates that some hazardous materials in the slag discharged from Teck’s smelter in Trail, B.C., ended up in the Upper Columbia River south of the border.

Specifically, the company admitted: “Trail discharged solid effluents, or slag, and liquid effluent into the Columbia River that came to rest in Washington state, and from that material, hazardous materials under (U.S. environmental laws) were released into the environment,” Dave Godlewski, vice-president of environment and public affairs for Teck American, said in a telephone interview.

Spectra, BG make big pipeline bet in the race to B.C.’s coast – by Brent Jang and Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 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.

VANCOUVER AND CALGARY — Spectra Energy Corp. and BG Group PLC are proposing a new pipeline megaproject to carry natural gas to the British Columbia coast for export to Asian markets, making it the largest bet yet that the province’s energy riches will find a home abroad in a high-stakes race worth tens of billions of dollars.

The two companies envisage brisk demand for B.C. natural gas from customers in Japan, China and South Korea, and big potential in India and Thailand, said Doug Bloom, president of Spectra’s Western Canadian operations.

In the process, they are attempting to build a future that stands to see Canada’s westernmost province rival Alberta as Canada’s natural gas heavyweight.

“It’s British Columbia that has a massive resource base, and that’s where the bulk of the supply will come from,” Mr. Bloom said in an interview Monday in Spectra’s Vancouver office. “There are enormous amounts of domestic supply and production capability that are way in excess of domestic needs.”

Gold miner Goldcorp is cornerstone of the Red Lake community

September 11, 2012

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 Goldcorp’s Red Lake Mines is the cornerstone of its namesake community in the northwestern corner of Ontario. Though the impact of this mining operation is felt regionally, provincially, nationally and internationally, its role is the most profound within sight of its headframes.

Red Lake, which is located in the Central Time Zone, more than 1,900 kilometres north and west of Toronto, has a current population of about 5,200. It is comprised of the communities of Red Lake, Balmertown, Cochenour, McKenzie Island, Madsen and Starratt-Olsen. Goldcorp is the largest employer in the community with approximately 1,000 workers and 500 contractors on board.

Goldcorp’s operations, which are all underground, in this area are supported by four headframes and hoists and two milling facilities with a capacity of 2,800 tonnes per day. Red Lake Mines is the largest gold producer among Goldcorp’s multiple operations in Canada, the United States and Latin America. In 2012, Red Lake Mines is expected to produce between 460,000 and 510,000 ounces of gold. In 2012, Goldcorp’s total production from all of its operations is expected to be between 2.35 and 2.45 million ounces of gold.

Army of innovators lines energy’s road to success – by Jameson Berkow (National Post – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 2012

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

The challenges facing Canada’s energy industry — to turn one of the most energy-and emissions-intensive resource extraction processes in the world into something more environmentally sustainable — dwarf the innovation hurdles facing other industries. To overcome them, an interconnected army of innovators is key.

“People always ask me why this is so hard,” said Robert Donahue, a consulting research engineer at the Syncrude Ltd. research-and-development (R&D) centre focusing on the restoration of depleted mine sites to their natural state, and a former University of Alberta geotechnical engineering professor. “I tell them I’m trying to reconstruct the earth and I’m trying to do it without geological time on my side. I need to do it in human time.”

Mr. Donahue is part of a growing collective of PhD-toting, private industry-sponsored academics who have been taking research and development in the energy sector to higher and more commercially viable areas.

In traditionally R&D-intensive industries like technology or pharmaceuticals, academic support often comes from the odd breakthrough in a lab or from networks of scientists working in silos that are disconnected from the industries for which their research is intended.

Talisman shifts focus to profitability as new CEO takes reins – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 2012

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

In barely 20 years since its spinoff from BP PLC, Talisman Energy Inc. grew into one of Canada’s senior players through a unique mix of corporate raids, shrewd exploration, a global mindset and controversy-be-damned attitude.

From the geologically challenging Alberta foothills to the conflict-ravaged desert of Sudan, to the jungles of Peru to shale deposits in Quebec, Talisman pushed hard if it felt the “rocks” were good — as its founder and former CEO Jim Buckee used to say.

But investors have become increasingly disenchanted, resulting in a low stock price and persistent rumours of a sale that intensified since the announcement in July of rival Nexen Inc.’s sale to CNOOC Ltd. for $15.1-billion. Talisman signaled Monday it’s changing course rather than putting itself on the block.

President and CEO John Manzoni, the BP senior executive hired five years ago to continue in Mr. Buckee’s footsteps, stepped down, and Talisman is now under the steady hand of Hal Kvisle, the former TransCanada Corp. president and CEO and a Talisman board member who came out of retirement to pave the way for a new, more shareholder-focused strategy.

China’s imports shrink as slump worsens – by Joe McDonald (The Associated Press/Toronto Star – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 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.

BEIJING, CHINA—China’s imports shrank unexpectedly in August in a sign its economic slump is worsening and the Chinese president warned growth could slow further, prompting expectations of possible new stimulus spending.

Imports declined 2.6 per cent from a year earlier, below analysts’ expectations of growth in low single digits, data showed Monday. That came on top of August’s decline in factory output to a three-year low and other signs growth is still decelerating despite repeated stimulus efforts.

The weakness in China’s demand for imports is bad news for exporters in Southeast Asia, Australia, Brazil and elsewhere that are counting on its appetite for oil, iron ore, industrial components and other goods to offset anemic Western markets.

Analysts expect Chinese growth that fell to a three-year low of 7.6 per cent in the latest quarter to rebound late this year or in early 2013. But they say it likely will be too weak to drive a global recovery without improvement in the United States, which is struggling with a sluggish recovery, and debt-crippled Europe.

B.C. mining giant [Teck Resources Ltd.] admits polluting U.S. waters – The Canadian Press/CBC News.com (September 10,2012)

September 11, 2012

http://www.cbc.ca/news/

Teck Resources acknowledges fouling Columbia River for more than 100 years

Canadian mining giant Teck Resources Ltd. has admitted in a U.S. court that effluent from its smelter in southeast British Columbia has polluted the Columbia River in Washington for more than a century.

Teck subsidiary Teck Metals made the admission of fact in a lawsuit brought by a group of U.S. Indian tribes over environmental damage caused by the effluent discharges dating back to 1896.

The agreement, reached on the eve of the trial initiated by the Colville Confederated Tribes, stipulates that some hazardous materials in the slag discharged from Teck’s smelter in Trail, B.C., ended up in the Upper Columbia River south of the border.

Specifically, the company admitted: “Trail discharged solid effluents, or slag, and liquid effluent into the Columbia River that came to rest in Washington state, and from that material, hazardous materials [under U.S. environmental laws] were released into the environment,” Dave Godlewski, vice-president of environment and public affairs for Teck American, said in a telephone interview.

Atikokan showcases itself for new construction – Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – September 2012)

September 11, 2012

Established in 1980, Northern Ontario Business provides Canadians and international investors with relevant, current and insightful editorial content and business news information about Ontario’s vibrant and resource-rich North. Ian Ross is the editor of Northern Ontario Business ianross@nob.on.ca.

A slew of coming new industrial development has the Town of Atikokan rolling out the welcome mat to investors. The sleepy northwestern Ontario town of 3,300 is making early preparations to host one of Canada’s largest open-pit gold mines.

The municipality has released an accommodations study to entice builders to beat a path down Highway 11 to the former iron ore mining town, 180 km west of Thunder Bay. With a new mine on the horizon and several other job-creating developments on the schedule, the town anticipates a surge of construction workers arriving in the very near future, followed by the more permanent jobs in mining, power generation and wood pellet manufacturing.

A report by Crupi Consulting of Thunder Bay said Atikokan is facing a severe shortage of housing with “almost zero availability” for homes and rental units. Five major development projects, plus an addition onto the hospital, could create an estimated 1,500 to 1,700 construction jobs over the next five to seven years, followed by the promise of as many as 800 to 1,000 permanent jobs.

Time to put limits on larger state takeovers – by Jack M. Mintz (National Post – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 2012

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

Jack M. Mintz is the Palmer Chair, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary.

State entities have advantages over other bidders

The world is watching Canada as we twist ourselves into a pretzel trying to decide whether CNOOC, China’s large multinational oil company, should be permitted to purchase Canadian energy producer Nexen. The decision is difficult. Capital is needed for our ever-expanding economy. Yet, this is not a typical takeover since it involves a state-owned company acquiring a sizeable Canadian company.

Some issues are red herrings. Canada is being hollowed out. We are losing another national champion. Foreign owners contribute little to the country. Head-office operations disappear. Resources are a “strategic” asset, whatever that means.

Yet, the evidence does not back up this hysteria. Canada is in the middle among 100 countries in terms of inbound foreign direct investment (FDI) as a share of GDP. Many studies, especially Statistics Canada’s, show that FDI involving private-company acquisitions of Canadian-controlled assets confer a net benefit to Canada, including better productivity, higher wages to workers, technology transfer and new management. These make Canadian businesses more competitive and make for wealthier Canadian and foreign investors, who get a premium on their shares.

U.S. boom in oil production spells peril for Canadian crude – by Nathan Vanderklippe and Paul Koring (Globe and Mail – September 11, 2012)

September 11, 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 and WASHINGTON — A torrent of oil pumped from new wells across the U.S. is setting in motion a decade of dramatic change that promises to wean the country off OPEC, and threatens the growth of energy imports from Canada.

The U.S. is now staring at an energy future awash with its own crude, with far-reaching consequences for Canada’s oil sands, the U.S. economy and global geopolitics. This massive shift has been sparked by changing political sentiment and technological advances that have allowed crude to be tapped in new places – from North Dakota to Oklahoma, Colorado, Michigan, and even Florida.

The United States, according to new data released Monday by Bentek, a U.S. energy analysis firm, will see its oil production rise nearly five million barrels a day, or 74 per cent, in the next decade.

In that time, reliance on countries outside Canada will largely disappear. The U.S. today imports 45 per cent of its petroleum, half from OPEC countries. But by 2022, Bentek projects, only a million barrels per day will be delivered to U.S. shores by tanker – down from 6.7 million in 2011 and just 5 per cent of total demand – and at least some of those won’t come from OPEC, but from countries like Mexico and Brazil.