September 26, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Long day ends with rescue [Saskatchewan potash mine fire] – by Kerry Benjoe and Terrence McEachern (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – September 26, 2012)

September 26, 2012

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

After more than 16 hours trapped underground at the Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan mine in Rocanville, Darwyn Wirth admitted he was tired. And that he wanted a cold beer.

Wirth, a shift electrician with Potash-Corp from Churchbridge, was one of 15 miners brought to the surface at 6: 42 p.m. on Tuesday. His shift started just over a day earlier at 6: 30 p.m. on Monday. At 1: 56 a.m. Tuesday morning his normal work day was interrupted when a fire broke out in the mine.

Twenty-nine miners were midway through their 12-hour shift when the fire alarm sounded. Nine miners were immediately evacuated, however the remaining 20 men sought safety in four refuge shelters throughout the mine. At 8: 15 p.m., the remaining five miners were brought to the surface.

The area where the fire broke out was 15 kilometres from the main Rocanville site and the shaft where workers enter and exit the underground mine. Wirth was the first person to spot the fire. He said at no point was he worried and described the experience as being “delayed” rather than trapped.

Miners successfully rescued from PotashCorp mine in Rocanville – Canadian Press (Saskatoon Star Phoenix – September 25, 2012)

September 26, 2012

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

ROCANVILLE, Sask. — After spending a day trapped underground by a fire at a Saskatchewan potash mine, electrician Darwyn Wirth knew exactly what he wanted to do.

“I think I’m going to go and have a cold beer,” he told reporters shortly after he and 19 of his colleagues were brought safely back to the surface.

The blaze broke out at about 2 a.m. Tuesday when a large wooden cable spool started burning at PotashCorp.’s Rocanville mine, about 244 kilometres east of Regina.

There was no panic, said the miners, who immediately headed to four separate refuge stations scattered throughout the facility.

“We have an alarm system with loud bells and flashing red lights, and you immediately go to a refuge station and call the control room so they know where you are,” said Wirth.

Ontario unwilling to answer north-south funding questions: economist – CBC Radio Sudbury (September 25, 2012)

September 26, 2012

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

Northern Ontario gives more than it gets, according to some northerners, but the government hasn’t crunched those numbers

A prominent economist is calling on the provincial government to figure out if northern Ontario is being subsidized by the south.

There has long been debate about whether the region contributes more to the province in taxes than it receives back in funding and Laurentian University economics professor David Robinson said the government seems unwilling to crunch those numbers.

“I’ve had two ministers tell me they would get it done and they haven’t,” Robinson said. “So I think the evidence is either somebody’s telling them it’s too costly and impossible — in which case they are incompetent — or they just don’t want to release those numbers.”

A spokesperson for the ministry of Northern Development and Mines said it is impossible to determine if northern Ontario pays more than it gets back from the government — partially because tax revenue can’t be narrowed down to specific regions of Ontario.

The question of whether northern Ontario is getting its fair share was highlighted again recently with the final trek of the Northlander train, which will make its last journey north at the end of the week.

With fire quenched, miners surface in Saskatchewan – by Nathan Vanderklippe, Anna Mehler Paperny and Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – September 26, 2012)

September 26, 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.

NEAR, ROCANVILLE, SASK. and TORONTO – Darwyn Wirth was driving down a mine travelway a kilometre beneath the Saskatchewan prairie when he saw fire. It was, he said, “a fairly large ball of flame.” Something had gone wrong deep inside the mine workings at Potash Corp’s Rocanville mine.

Mr. Wirth, a shift electrician, knew it was more than he could handle with a fire extinguisher. He retreated to a phone, notified the control room and sought safety in a refuge station.

Almost exactly 24 hours after his shift began early Monday evening, he emerged from the shaft, after workers put out the underground flames – which had erupted from a trio of cable reels – unscathed, and with a story to tell.

“There was two other gentlemen in the refuge station with me. We basically just spent time talking to each other, and at one we were allowed to call our spouses, which was nice,” he said. Their discussion, he added, included “anything but fire.”

CSIS report raises a question to be asked about the CNOOC-Nexen deal – Globe and Mail Editorial (September 26, 2012)

September 26, 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.

Foreign espionage is surely not a “net benefit to Canada.” That phrase is the essential criterion for the approval of takeovers by foreign companies, under the Investment Canada Act. It is striking that the most recent annual report of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, released last Thursday, implicitly draws a connection between foreign-investment policy and security and intelligence – a point that decision-makers and policy-makers need to bear in mind.

In particular, CSIS’s report says that “certain state-owned enterprises and private firms with close ties to their home governments have pursued opaque agendas or received clandestine intelligence support for their pursuits here.”

To be fair, it must be said that the International Energy Agency published a paper last year, which said that CNOOC Ltd. and two other state-owned Chinese oil companies are not “state-run” but “state-invested.” CNOOC’s application to Investment Canada for its purchase of the Canadian oil company Nexen Inc. is pending. The IEA’s opinion clearly suggests that CNOOC is not among the unnamed SOEs with “unduly close ties” to a state that is also its controlling shareholder. Indeed, CNOOC is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and has numerous Canadian shareholders.

Canadian oil patch seeks protection from foreign investors – by Shawn McCarthy and Jacquie McNish (Globe and Mail – September 26, 2012)

September 26, 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.

OTTAWA and TORONTO — Top oil industry executives are asking Ottawa for rules to protect Canadian ownership of major oil sands companies from a flood of foreign investment expected in the sector.

Canada’s oil sands contain the third-largest crude oil reserves in the world and are a strategically critical resource for the country, industry executives argue. They support the proposed $15.1-billion acquisition of Nexen Inc. by China’s CNOOC Ltd., but note the deal signals growing foreign interest in the oil sands and insist Ottawa needs to ensure a substantial level of domestic ownership as more deals loom.

“I think it is important to get some ground rules in place before the next one,” said Murray Edwards, CEO of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., one of Canada’s biggest energy companies and a major oil sands player. Mr. Edwards was among a large contingent of top executives gathered in Ottawa for a two-day session on how Canada should position itself to take full advantage of the growing economic power and affluence of Asia.

That power is centred in China, whose hunger for more opportunities in the Canadian oil patch is forcing Canada to shape its foreign-investment policy.