October 5, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Platinum producer fires 12,000 striking South African miners as unrest deepens – by Agnieszka Flak (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 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.

JOHANNESBURG — Reuters – Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) fired 12,000 wildcat strikers on Friday, a high-stakes attempt by the world’s biggest platinum producer to push back at a wave of illegal stoppages sweeping through South Africa’s mining sector and beyond.

The rand fell sharply after the announcement, suggesting investors fear the sackings could worsen what is shaping up to be the most damaging period of labour unrest in Africa’s biggest economy since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Police shot dead one striking miner overnight, bringing the death toll in two months of unrest to 48. Strikes have spread beyond the mining sector, with Shell declaring on Friday that it would not be able to honour contracts to deliver fuel near Johannesburg because of a trucking strike.

The unrest is causing political trouble for President Jacob Zuma and his ruling African National Congress (ANC), the veteran liberation movement with long-standing ties to labour unions. “You fire 12,000 people, and it’s like ‘Oh my god, what happens now?’” one Johannesburg-based currency strategist said.

MPs arrested over Canadian mine protest – by Olga Dzyubenko (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 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.

BISHKEK — Reuters – Kyrgyzstani police on Thursday arrested three members of parliament who had led a crowd that tried to storm government headquarters in a protest over a Canadian-owned gold mine, Centerra Gold.

Wednesday’s clashes between police and supporters of the opposition Ata Zhurt party in the former Soviet republic were the most violent in the capital, Bishkek, since the April, 2010, revolt that ousted then-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

The protesters want the mine, crucial to Kyrgyzstan’s fragile economy, to be nationalized. The three parliamentarians – Kamchibek Tashiyev, Sadyr Zhaparov and Talant Mamytov – are being held on suspicion of trying to seize power. Prosecutors have 48 hours to decide whether to charge them.

On Thursday, about 1,000 supporters rallied in the main square of the southern city of Jalalabad, their power base, to demand their release. There was no violence. “Parliament, the President, the government should resign because they are not resolving the Kumtor issue,” one demonstrator shouted through a megaphone.

Alaska plan intensifies gas race to Asia – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 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 — A massive new proposal to export natural gas from Alaska brings a major competitor into the race to carry North American gas to Asia, and adds pressure on Canadian export projects to build quickly or risk losing out.

The Alaska Southcentral LNG project would include construction of a 1,300-kilometre pipeline from Alaskan North Slope gas fields to southern waters, near Valdez or Anchorage, where a new terminal would load liquefied natural gas on to tankers.

It is notable for the stature of its backers – BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co. and TransCanada Corp., which have now joined forces after duelling for years over separate gas pipeline projects – and for its scale.

With a price tag of $45-billion to $65-billion-plus (U.S.), the Alaska project is a study in superlatives. It would use 1.7 million tons of steel, take 15,000 people to build and load three billion to 3.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day on to ships bound for Asia.
It would elbow itself into a market that has been the focus of a global scramble, with numerous LNG terminals either being proposed or built in Qatar, Australia and elsewhere.

Nexen decision a tipping point for Canada – by Derek H. Burney and Fen Osler Hampson (Globe and Mail – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 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.

Derek H. Burney is Senior Strategic Advisor for Norton Rose Canada LLP and a former Canadian Ambassador to the United States. Fen Osler Hampson is Distinguished Fellow and Director of Global Security at CIGI and Chancellor’s Professor, Carleton University.

The decision on CNOOC ‘s proposed acquisition of Nexen will be a key litmus test on whether the government intends to “walk the talk” on diversification. Approval – along with clear limits on future foreign investments – not only makes sense, but is clearly in the national interest, if the government seriously intends to broaden economic ties with the fastest-growing, second-largest global economy.

Concerns about state-owned enterprises not adhering to market principles have some legitimacy, as do the undeniable facts that the Chinese political system is different and plays by different quasi-market rules. Furthermore, Canadian firms have nothing like open access to invest in China on oil sands development or in virtually any other sector.

But Canada needs foreign investment to develop its huge resource base, and China has unmatched capacity to participate. With less than 5 per cent of the oil sands leases, Nexen is a relatively small player.

[Sudbury] ‘Pro-Cliffs’ group worried – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – October 5, 2012)

October 5, 2012

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

A group of concerned citizens, comprised of people who are all “pro-Cliffs,” will hold a public meeting Oct. 15 in Capreol to strike a formal committee to hold the company’s and government’s feet to the fire on the issue of environmental health and safety.

Retired mining health and safety activist Homer Seguin said half a dozen citizens, including former longtime New Democrat MPP Elie Martel, have been meeting to discuss Cliffs Natural Resources’ plan to build a ferrochrome processing plant north of Capreol.

“We’re pro-Cliffs,” said Seguin, “because the jobs are welcome. But first and foremost comes safety.” Cliffs announced in May it plans to build a $1.8-billion smelter at the former Moose Mountain Mine site to process chromite ore the Clevelandbased company will mine in the Ring of Fire.

The committee’s support will come with the condition that the plant be built and operated so as not to adversely affect the health of its employees, and the air and water in the city, said Seguin. Little is known about chromite processing, said Seguin, and that’s something at which a formalized committee would examine.

NDP’s rejection of Nexen deal pushes Harper into tight corner – by Jameson Berkow (National Post – October 4, 2012)

October 5, 2012

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

CALGARY — Canada’s official opposition has conducted its own “net benefit” test of China’s $15.1-billion attempt to buy a Canadian oil sands producer and issued the deal a failing grade.

The federal New Democratic Party Thursday urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to prevent Calgary-based Nexen Inc. from being sold to CNOOC Ltd., a state-controlled enterprise backed by China’s Communist government. While unsurprising given the party’s recent statements on the proposed deal, the move, experts say, was designed to provide the NDP with political capital.

“If the deal is denied then the NDP can try to take credit for denying the deal. If the deal goes forward then they can campaign on the fact that Stephen Harper doesn’t listen to Canadians,” said Duane Bratt, professor and chair of the policy studies department at Calgary’s Mount Royal University.

“Almost every foreign investment would fail the NDP test, any trade deal would fail the NDP test. They are a protectionist party so remember the government is not bound by the will of the opposition party here.” Few people cried foul of the deal when it was proposed in late July. But the issue of foreign state-owned players acquiring stakes in Canada’s oil patch has quickly gained momentum as debate has become increasingly contentious.