Mine Explorers See Cost Rising From 2013 Rules – by Liezel Hill – (Bloomberg.com – October 9, 2012)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Changes to century-old mining rules in Ontario signal delays and added costs for hundreds of explorers in a $1 billion industry that provides a crucial source of new deposits for global metal producers.

Prospectors such as Northern Shield Resources Inc. (NRN) and Mistango River Resources Inc. (MIS), which are accustomed to drilling their mining claims without permission in the Canadian province, will need to submit details of almost every stage of their exploration plans and consult with native groups under rules published last week that become mandatory April 1.

Ontario says the changes will provide certainty for exploration companies and will help pre-empt disputes with native groups, known in Canada as First Nations. Prospectors say the delays and expense resulting from the new rules will be an added burden in an industry that relies on hard-to-come-by financing from investors.

“There’s enough hurdles in mining exploration these days with market conditions and financing, First Nations consultations,” Ian Bliss, chief executive officer of Ottawa- based mineral explorer Northern Shield, said by phone last week. “Now we are just throwing in another complication which slows the process, and there’s a cost to it.”

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As Australia pulls back on mines, Canada on alert – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – October 8, 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.

When China sneezes, other nations catch cold – especially ones that have thrived by supplying the Asian giant with raw materials.

The world saw a graphic demonstration of that this past week as mining powerhouse Australia surprised international markets with an interest rate cut designed to stem the bleeding of an economy that depends heavily on exports destined for China.

The cut of 0.25 percentage points, to 3.25 per cent, was the latest evidence that slower economic growth in China is having an impact on major resource-based economies.

Australia, which used its proximity to China to become one of its chief suppliers of iron ore and coal over the past decade, is feeling the deepest and most immediate effects, as leading miners postpone investment plans and shutter projects. But Canada’s mining community is also heavily exposed to Chinese demand, and has deep ties to Australia’s mining sector.

Long viewed as one of the world’s most attractive mining jurisdictions, Australia is now facing challenges that go beyond just the global economic slowdown. Costs have boomed in its mines and its wages are now some of the highest in the global industry. It is also suffering from a shortage of skilled labour.

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Study finds little environmental impact from oil sands – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – October 9, 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 — In 2010, a single oil-sands operation run by Suncor Energy released into the atmosphere 28,940 tonnes of volatile organic compounds, 22,210 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 14,011 tonnes of particulate matter.

With those three types of substances combined, Suncor emitted into the air pollutants equivalent in weight to nearly 4,800 city buses – and the company operates just one of several mines sprawling across the landscape north of Fort McMurray, Alta.

Yet when scientists drilled into lake bottoms 200 kilometres from those oil-sands mines, they discovered something surprising: At that distance, levels of those pollutants were negligible. In fact, the lake sediments, whose layers opened a window onto hundreds of years of air and water quality, showed that in many ways those lakes are cleaner today than they were decades, and even centuries, ago.

“It’s still, by and large, a natural landscape,” said Roland Hall, a University of Waterloo professor of biology and one of the lead researchers on the new study. Communities downstream of the oil sands, such as Fort Chipewyan, have long pointed the finger at oil-sands operations for sullying water, fish and people with toxins.

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More of the same for Venezuela oil after Chavez clinches re-election – by Daniel Wallis and Marianna Parraga (National Post – October 9, 2012)

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

Reuters – CARACAS – President Hugo Chavez’s re-election on Sunday means Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA will remain highly politicized and will continue its discount supply deals with his socialist allies.

Chavez, 58, won a new six-year term with more than 54% of the vote against opposition rival Henrique Capriles, a young state governor who sought to end his 14-year, self-styled revolution.

Critics say Chavez has hobbled PDVSA with the weight of his government’s financial demands — it helps pays for everything from sports teams to health clinics and home building – meaning it has neglected to invest enough in the oil business.

The industry brings in more than 95% of the OPEC nation’s hard currency revenue. PDVSA produces almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd) and boasts the biggest crude reserves in the world.

But the company, which has more than 100,000 employees, has repeatedly failed to hit its own production targets and has suffered a string of sometimes-deadly accidents in recent years. Following Chavez’s comfortable victory, his government will seek to push forward a raft of ambitious joint ventures with foreign partners in the huge Orinoco extra-heavy crude belt – one of the planet’s biggest, mostly untouched oil reserves.

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Canada, Russia will share Arctic riches, scientist predicts – by Matthew Fisher (Postmedia News – October 9, 2012)

http://o.canada.com/

ST. PETERSBURG – The scientist responsible for preparing Russia’s claim to seabed rights at the top of the world says Canada and his country are both poised to reap staggering economic benefits when a deal on who owns title to what in the northern ocean is finally struck.

“Canada has a wonderful shelf and basin, so of course Canada can get very rich from this,” said Victor Posyolov, deputy director of Russia’s Institute of World Ocean Geology and the head of its Arctic research program.

Poring over maps tracking the evidence that he is amassing for Russia’s claim, Posyolov estimated that his country, with the longest Arctic coastline, would gain rights to about 1.2 million square kilometres of seabed. He reckoned Canada would get about 800,000 square kilometres of sub-surface territory. That would be about twice as much seabed as the other claimants, Denmark and the United States, are likely to get.

“The biggest shelves and basins are in Canadian waters and it will benefit the most. The U.S. and Denmark have modest sectors,” Posyolov said in a room dominated by a circumpolar map that Canada and Russia jointly produced in 1992.

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Investors, mining companies, politicians, environment groups waiting for PQ’s vision for northern Quebec – by Monique Beaudin (Montreal Gazette – October 9, 2012)

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

It seems anyone with any bit of interest in northern Quebec would like a few words with the province’s new natural resources minister.

International investors, mining companies, municipal politicians and environmental groups are all wondering what exactly the new Parti Québécois government is going to do about the development of the north. Promoted internationally by former premier Jean Charest, it appears the new government has buried the 25-year, $80-billion Plan Nord.

Last week, Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet said the Plan Nord was just “marketing” for northern mining projects that were under way or in the planning stages. The PQ intends to go ahead with northern development, she said, but not any which way. The government is planning to create an agency to co-ordinate activities, similar to the Société de Plan Nord that was planned by the Liberals, she told La Presse’s editorial board.

Environmental groups welcomed the news, but Ouellet’s comments raised questions about what happens next. Mining companies and international investors are taking a “wait-and-see” approach, said Nochane Rousseau, a partner in the Montreal office of PricewaterhouseCoopers and leader of the company’s mining industry services.

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The 9 Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies: Lessons for Canada – by Madelaine Drohan (Canadian International Council Policy Report – October 5, 2012)

Madelaine Drohan is the Canada correspondent for The Economist and contributes regularly to its sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit. For the last 35 years, she has covered business and politics in Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. She has written in the past for The Financial Times (UK), appeared as a commentator on BBC Radio (UK), ABC Radio (Australia) and CBC Radio, and worked in Canada for The Globe and Mail, The Financial Post, Maclean’s, and The Canadian Press.

For the entire report click here: The 9 Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies: Lessons for Canada

Executive Summary

Hewers of wood and drawers of water have had a bad image since Joshua cursed the Gibeonites and condemned them to those labours. Some of that biblical taint lingers in Canada. Fur, fish, wood, and minerals may have shaped this country, but for much of the 20th century, natural resources were largely regarded as part of the old economy, best left behind as Canada raced toward a glittery high-tech future.

That future did not arrive. Instead, the global commodity boom that began in 2003, fuelled by industrialization and urbanization in emerging economies, made the resource sectors important again.

Last year, the top Canadian merchandise export to every one of its major trading partners was a natural resource. This unexpected revival of the resource economy is one reason governments in Canada have come late to the realization that they must be more deliberate and united in their approach to resource development if they are to spread the wealth, not just over regions but also over generations.

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Mining legend built legacy by giving back [John Larche dies] – by Kyle Gennings (Timmins Daily Press – October 8, 2012)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

Timmins lost one of the golden pillars of its community this Thanksgiving Day. John Larche died of natural causes, surrounded by his family at Timmins and District Hospital on Monday morning. He was 84.

It was the final page in a life highlighted by a long list of accomplishments which changed the face of the prospecting and mining industry the world round; it was the final page in a life that saw both hardship and success, one that was built on giving back, a life that cemented him in the memory of the City with the Heart of Gold

Larche was one of the true legends of the Porcupine Camp, as one of Canada’s most successful prospectors and in term of generosity in the community. He became involved in exploration in 1955, as an independent prospector and contractor.

He remained active in the industry until shortly before his death. Beginning in the late 1960s, he was elected president of the Porcupine branch of the Prospectors and Developers Association for 17 consecutive terms.

“He was a long-time friend,” said Dean Rogers, the association’s current president. “John was one of the stalwarts of the Porcupine Camp’s second generation, a true legend”

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Foreign junket rules allow MPs to fly under the radar – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – October 8, 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 — Imagine that a Canadian company flies a group of MPs and their spouses to a conference in Paris or Hong Kong, puts them up in a luxury hotel, and then plies them with food and wine. Think this kind of junket is prohibited? Not necessarily.

The conflict-of-interest code for members of Parliament prohibits accepting “any gift or benefit … that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence the member.”

But there’s a special exemption for travel if it “relates” to an MP’s work in the House of Commons, providing that details are disclosed to the federal ethics commissioner.

The result is a troubling contradiction. It’s sometimes okay for MPs to accept free travel from people who are actively lobbying them. “It’s a gaping hole in the MPs’ ethics rules,” argued Duff Conacher, the founding director of Democracy Watch.

“If someone’s lobbying you, they shouldn’t give you anything,” he said.

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South Africa’s ruling party paralyzed as strikes choke off economy – by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail – October 8, 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 — Fuel and food supplies are beginning to run out as labour violence escalates in South Africa, leaving its ruling party facing a mounting national economic crisis while it is paralyzed by a leadership struggle.

The wildcat strikes are inflicting heavy damage on some of the world’s biggest gold and platinum producers in a country that remains Africa’s economic powerhouse. South Africa is the world’s biggest platinum producer and the fifth-biggest gold producer.

Two more people were reported murdered on the weekend in Marikana, the platinum mining town where 34 protesters were gunned down by police in August.

The labour unrest could become more chaotic this week as rail and port workers threaten to join 28,000 truckers whose strike has already disrupted fuel and food deliveries across South Africa, leaving some gas stations out of supplies, bank machines running out of cash and supermarkets suffering shortages of some products.

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Resources: The flashpoint of 2015’s election – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – October 8, 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.

The federal election of 1988 was so important that both sides agreed the very future of the country was at stake. The federal election of 2015 could be of similar nature. Then, the issue was trade. This time it could be resources.

The government and the opposition are dividing, with increasing bitterness, over whether and how Canada should exploit its resource wealth – especially petroleum. The question encompasses jobs, the environment, international relations, and regional growth and decline.

“The real issue is the vision of the future economically and environmentally,” NDP natural resources critic Peter Julian said in an interview. “These are the kinds of issues that will be front and centre in the next campaign.”

Twenty-five years ago last Thursday, as many have noted, Canada and the United States signed a free-trade agreement. But the country was bitterly divided over that issue, as well, ultimately forcing Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government to call – and win – an election.

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A nine-step plan to fix Canada’s resource economy – by Barrie McKenna (Globe and Mail – October 6, 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 — Canada will never be a true resource superpower until it shuns “rip-and-ship” extraction, embraces sustainability and shares the wealth with future generations.

Those are among the key conclusions of a provocative new report by the Canadian International Council, entitled “Nine Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies.” Canada has won the “geological lottery,” with vast stores of resources that the world craves, but it risks squandering that inheritance because it lacks a clear national plan to exploit them wisely, the CIC says.

The foreign affairs think tank points to Norway, Sweden, Finland and Australia as the best examples of countries successfully leveraging their resources for maximum economic and social benefit.

“Other resource producers do a better job of collaborating, of finding a balance between environmental protection and the economy, of adding, building, or extracting value from their resources, of saving for future generations, and of being strategic about resource development,” according to the report, written by Madelaine Drohan, The Economist’s Canadian correspondent and former Globe and Mail reporter. “There are smaller countries with fewer resources than Canada that punch far above their weight on the global stage.”

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China’s Nexen bid calls for a public debate – Toronto Star Editorial (October 7, 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.

Just how much of Canada’s vast oil and gas wealth is Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government prepared to put in the hands of China’s state-owned firms or other foreign actors? It’s a question that has been raised not only in Parliament, but also in the Alberta premier’s office and in corporate suites across the country, amid growing concern over China’s bid to buy Nexen Inc., a firm with interests in the western oilsands.

China’s ambassador, Zhang Junsai, makes a spirited case that “Chinese investments should be encouraged” to put Canada-China trade on a sounder footing and to help raise the $200 billion needed to develop the oilsands in the coming decades. Moreover, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corp.’s proposed $15.1-billion buyout is a friendly one, laced with promises to make Calgary the head office for all of the firm’s operations, to list shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and to keep the current management and workforce.

Still, many Canadians worry about the implications of this deal. Harper himself acknowledges that the bid “raises a range of difficult policy questions, difficult forward-looking issues.”

Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Alison Redford, while supportive, wants Ottawa to insist that CNOOC guarantee that Canadians will hold half of Nexen’s board and management positions, according to media reports.

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